A three-month-old golden retriever arrived at a veterinary clinic leaking urine in the house. Imaging found an obvious culprit: a left ectopic ureter, a plumbing defect in which the tube from the kidney empties in the wrong place. Surgeons ablated it with a laser. The leaking improved. It did not stop.
What finally explained the rest was not anatomy. According to a case report published in August in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior, the dog was drinking compulsively, searching out water she had no physiological need for. The diagnosis was psychogenic polydipsia, a condition far better documented in psychiatric wards than in veterinary clinics.
