About two months ago, my family had noticed that Niko was drinking way more water than she usually does. At first we chalked this up to her usual treat-grubbing antics. Drinking more water would allow her to go out to pee more and in turn result in her recieving more treats. We proceeded to put her on a pee schedule so that she wouldn’t be able to go out as often as she wanted. Unfortunately this backfired in the form of several small puddles on our living room and kitchen rugs and or carpets.
Since she was a baby, there was one thing that she disliked more than anything - peeing in the house. When she was still in training, if she were to make a mistake, she would often give the most remorseful look known to man and hide in unlikely places. It was at this point that we might suspect something wrong. I told Jess about it seeing as how she is studying to be a vet and she hypothesized that it might have something to do with poor dental hygiene - that she was drinking so much water because her teeth were hurting her.
Last friday, my mom and I brought Niko to the veterinarian. We forgot to bring a urine sample and collecting this at the clinic is another story all together. The vet did blood test and urine tests and told us that he would get back to us a few days later. His first inclination however, was that Niko might have diabetes.
Fast forward through the weekend and I recieve confirmation that Niko does indeed have diabetes. She would have to go in [this past monday] to have her blood sugar level monitored throughout the day in order to figure out how much insulin were are to administer, if any.
The good news is that her condition has not progressed far enough so as to cause any damage to any organs but we still have to give her two units of insulin twice a day. My mom and I just did so, not without a tiny yelp. Poor Niko.