Storm had a check up at the vet yesterday and although his urine is still pretty diluted, there is a small improvement in him being able to concentrate his urine.

He currently is on anti diuretic eye drops which he was getting one drop, once a day. As of yesterday evening, he is now getting two.

I thought the bottle of eye drops cost a pretty penny at $85, but now that Storm runs away when he sees the eye drop bottle, I ask for something in pill form. When hubby took the Rx to the pharmacy, he called to ask if he should get it because it was $185!! No that put me in sticker shock! I supposed since I've always had medical benefits to cover Rx, I never really know what drugs really cost!

Since the eye drops already cost a pretty penny, I told hubby not to fill the Rx, and we'll use up the eye drop and just get Storm in a headlock!

At this point, I'm getting a little discouraged. He still drinks a lot fo water in at one time, but he does not drink as much water as he used to - so there is a slight decrease in water intake.

I also want to seek a second opinion from a true holistic vet - I found this vet whom I'm interested in talking to: http://www.holisticcareforanimals.com/index.html

My current vet practices accupuncture, but but that's about the extent of the 'holistic' practice.

There is also the first vet I took Ginger to when she was going through her diarreha issues (http://www.washingtonparkvc.com/site/view/135440_OurDoctors.pml Dr. Diller) - she's 'more holistic' than my current vet, but I don't think as much as the one I just found. (If that even makes sense where one being 'more holistic' than the other).

The only thing that I feel bad about is that my current vet will know I went somewhere else, probably to seek a second opinion, as if I don't trust her. I'll have to ask for Storm's blood tests, and sterile urine analysis, and such...but then again, she does want to pull Ginger's broken canine even though it doesn't seem to bother her, and we have seen no signs of any change in Ginger's demeanor since we adopted her and she's had it broken before we adopted her.

oh no

I don't have much to offer but I can suggest asking your vet if they can find a pharmacy that is cheaper for the drops/medicine (whichever you choose to go with). My mother's smallest Maltese has to get drops 2 times a day for his entire life. Coming from the vet they'd cost us 75 dollars a bottle instead our vet found us a pharmacy in NJ that will mail the drops to us for 25 dollars.

I don't think your vet will think it such a bad thing to seek out a second opinion. You're just keeping your options open and trying to provide the best care you can for Storm. No doctor (human or veterinary) should hold that against someone.

Honestly Claudia, Dr. Facinelli looks incredibly legit. I would take my dogs to see her if I were in your area. I'm sure she will compare to my vet, whom I love.

You will see a big different with the homeopathic remedies compared to conventional medication. At first, I was a skeptic, but since using herbs for Delilah allergies, I am a complete believe. Good luck dear, I am hopeful that a holistic vet will turn everything around.

I found Storm's pills, Desmopressin, at Costco for $82 - better.

I hope he does NOT have to be on this long term!

Desmopressin is the generic to DDAVP.

Desmopressin is used to control the amount of urine your kidneys make. Normally, the amount of urine you make is controlled by a certain substance in the body called vasopressin. In dogs (or people) who have "water diabetes" (diabetes insipidus) or certain kinds of head injury or brain surgery, the body does not make enough vasopressin. Desmopressin is a man-made form of vasopressin and is used to replace a low level of vasopressin. This medication helps to control increased thirst and too much urination due to these conditions, and helps prevent dehydration.

Since I work at a Pharmacy I can tell you that the cost of a prescription when paying cash price can vary a whole lot pharmacy to pharmacy. Your vet will probably not want to but you can call yourself. Call as many as 10 and you will not believe the difference you will get. It will be well worth the time it takes you to make the calls.

Balonsmom wrote:

Since I work at a Pharmacy I can tell you that the cost of a prescription when paying cash price can vary a whole lot pharmacy to pharmacy. Your vet will probably not want to but you can call yourself. Call as many as 10 and you will not believe the difference you will get. It will be well worth the time it takes you to make the calls.

I found that out by calling the pharmacies around me and they varied from $180 to $250!

I finally called Costo and they had it for $84 so I think I'm going to call Costco pharmacy from now on for Rx for G&S!

I finally have an update on Storm's diabetes insipidous - whew!

He finished his desmopressin meds and he is now able to concentrate his urine to normal levels. Since he still drinks a lot of water that dilutes his urine toward the end of day, we limited his water access as filling his big bowl with 16 oz of water morning, noon and night. If he looks for water and his bowl is empty, I would fill it with another 8 oz of water. This is so that we can help re-train him so gets back to his usual drinking patterns.

When I took Storm to his vet yesterday, they took a urine sample around 3pm and it was very diluted. I mentioned that his urine in the morning is yellow and towards mid afternoon, it starts to get more clear. When I mentioned that it was odd that he would drink less on hikes when I would expect him to drink more, Doc thought maybe he is drinking out of boredom?? Instead of digging and chewing when dogs are bored! I thought that could be a possibility since they really don't do much during the day unless we play (all 3 of us).

In any case, doc wanted a urine sample from this morning but our morning was too hectic and I wasn't able to grab a urine sample until 2pm today. It looked yellow so I thought to take it in for a test anyway and it came back in the normal concentration levels! YAY!

So...we now think that Storm drinks water when he's bored instead of chewing and digging up stuff he's not supposed to. I guess I'll take water drinking over destructive behaviors!

So he's off meds again! Whew!
My boy! Gotta love him!

It's been about a month since my last update, and Storm is pretty much back to his normal drinking habits. Maybe because the temperature has dropped also had something to do with not having to drink so much water at once. When he does, we just call his name and he'll stop. Now that there's some snow on the ground these past couple of days, I can tell more easily that his urine is back to the color it should be - a nice hue of yellow.