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Dog Diabetes Insipidus (Water Diabetes).
Symptoms and info on dog water diabetes to help maintain a healthy dog.
DBT highly recommends the The Ultimate Guide to Dog Health! ebook when learning to look after your dog or pet.
Dog Diabetes Insipidus (Water Diabetes) Symptoms
1. Increased thirst
2. Urinating more than usual with possible bet wetting
3. Increased appetite
4. Possible weight loss
5. Loss of appetite and Weight loss in more advanced cases.
What Causes Dog Diabetes Insipidus (Water Diabetes)?
Most types of diabetes often get associated with the more common and well known sugar/mellitus diabetes, but diabetes insipidus or water diabetes as it is formally known is different and more complex in many ways that sugar diabetes.
Diabetes insipidus occurs when the pineal gland situated in the brain is not producing enough or as much of the chemical anti-diuretic hormone (ADH) as it should be. This chemical is used via the blood to help and stimulate the kidneys to reabsorb water in the cycle of making urine. The pineal gland also knows and controls, via the ADH chemical when more water is needed to be reabsorbed into the body and when further water is not needed.
If diabetes insipidus is the case then the pineal gland will fail to produce this important ADH chemical and it will leave the kidneys thinking that no more water needs to be conserved and recycled and that it should be disposed of via urinating.
As this happens the dog will become more and more dehydrated because al liquids are being discarded making them want to drink more and also having the symptoms of urinating more often. This may even cause bed wetting because the urine accumulates so fast there is often no time to wake up to realise and urinating occurs.
What Your Vet May Say or Do
After the initial symptoms have been observed and noted and diabetes insipidus is a likely condition the vet will then take two or more urine tests to make sure that the urine samples are consistent, and to check the urine concentration. If the concentration is the same in all tests then the diagnosis is confirmed. If there are still problems then a water deprivation test can be made to see if despite the lack of fluids the dog still gets rid of liquids from the body.
When the condition is approved by the above system the vet will then prescribe artificial ADH tablets called vasopressin. All this does is replace the absent ADH chemical with a similar chemical so the dog can become hydrated and regain use of the kidneys again.
This treatment will then be continued for the rest of the dogs life to maintain the stability.
Other Possible Conditions
Dog Urinating and Drinking More Than Usual
Acute (Sudden) Kidney Failure
Dog Addison's Disease / Adrenal Gland Disorder
Chronic (long term) Kidney Failure
Cushing's Disease - Adrenal Gland Disorders
Diabetes Mellitus (Sugar Diabetes)
Dog Hyperparathyroidism (Overactive Parathyroid Glands)
Dog Liver Failure and Liver Disease
Dog Tumor (Causing Elevated Blood Calcium Levels)