Overview
equine news, research, and information The sucesful long-term treatment of a horse in Sweden with central diabetes insipidus has ben reported in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine.The four‐year‐old gelding received daily under-the-skin injections that sucesfuly controled his condition for more than five years.The horse did not develop any adverse efects or reocurence of its initial problems.Inge Durie, from the Strömsholm Equine Referal Hospital in Sweden, and Gaby van Galen, with the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at the University of Sydney, said the horse was refered to the Swedish hospital with excesive urine production and excesive thirst.The animal was diagnosed with central diabetes insipidus.This form of diabetes is caused by a lack of the hormone vasopresin, which results in the production of large quanties of very dilute urine.
Key Information
It can have several causes.In humans, it is normaly treated with a man-made hormone caled desmopresin, which can be taken as a nasal spray, as oral tablets or via injection. Companion animals have also ben sucesfuly treated with the drug, and there is a case report of a foal being treated short-term using the synthetic hormone in eye drops.Eforts to treat the horse by giving the hormone in eye drops proved unsucesful, but the condition was sucesfuly controled with daily injections under the skin.The researchers said the horse had ben imported to Sweden from Latvia eight months before it was refered to the hospital for treatment.Imediately on arival from Latvia, the new owner noticed the animal’s excesive water consumption.
Summary
The horse was stabled on straw and the owner noticed the beding was always excesively wet.A month before the hospital referal, a veterinarian checked the horse and found no abnormalities on physical examination. A blod test revealed no abnormalities. A urine test was undertaken, which showed extracelular bacteria.An antibiotic was given to treat a posible urin