For background information, my cat Ringo was around two years old when we got him neutered. About a month after, he started drinking excessively and urinating in large volumes. Even stranger, the urine did not smell like typical cat pee. It was almost as if he was just having the water pass through him endlessly. We brought him back to the initial vet, who diagnosed him with a bladder infection. We gave him the special food, but it did not improve anything. We took him to a new vet for a second opinion, and he was given much more thorough tests. Hypothyroidism and diabetes mellitus were the two main suspects, but neither seemed to be the root cause. Finally, my vet narrowed it down and after a few more visits he was diagnosed with central diabetes insipidus.
I had never heard of this disorder before my vet talked about it being a possibility (and eventually the official diagnosis) for my cat. He has been on desmopressin since June of 2019 when he got diagnosed and the improvement has been incredible. It has been a gradual process, however - the nasal spray did not work great for him and he hated it. Once we switched him to pills last year, it improved a lot. He does not mind taking the pills and seems to be a lot more even-tempered now that he is not constantly thirsty and needs to pee.
I still wonder what could have caused this since my vet is also unsure of the cause. She had only seen it a couple of times before, and both of those cases were in dogs. It is not a very common diagnosis, but our community is not very large so that probably means there are lesser patients in the vet's office overall... Hopefully, I can help answer non-medical questions about this disorder and what it is like to cope with it if anyone else has a newly-diagnosed kitty or has had their vet bring it up as a possibility!
I had never heard of this disorder before my vet talked about it being a possibility (and eventually the official diagnosis) for my cat. He has been on desmopressin since June of 2019 when he got diagnosed and the improvement has been incredible. It has been a gradual process, however - the nasal spray did not work great for him and he hated it. Once we switched him to pills last year, it improved a lot. He does not mind taking the pills and seems to be a lot more even-tempered now that he is not constantly thirsty and needs to pee.
I still wonder what could have caused this since my vet is also unsure of the cause. She had only seen it a couple of times before, and both of those cases were in dogs. It is not a very common diagnosis, but our community is not very large so that probably means there are lesser patients in the vet's office overall... Hopefully, I can help answer non-medical questions about this disorder and what it is like to cope with it if anyone else has a newly-diagnosed kitty or has had their vet bring it up as a possibility!
