diff --git a/patroni/dcs/etcd3.py b/patroni/dcs/etcd3.py
index 0bfc4fae..e28da844 100644
--- a/patroni/dcs/etcd3.py
+++ b/patroni/dcs/etcd3.py
@@ -630,6 +630,16 @@ class PatroniEtcd3Client(Etcd3Client):
 
         return ret
 
+    def txn(self, compare: Dict[str, Any], success: Dict[str, Any],
+            failure: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None, retry: Optional[Retry] = None) -> Dict[str, Any]:
+        ret = super(PatroniEtcd3Client, self).txn(compare, success, failure, retry)
+        # Here we abuse the fact that the `failure` is only set in the call from update_leader().
+        # In all other cases the txn() call failure may be an indicator of a stale cache,
+        # and therefore we want to restart watcher.
+        if not failure and not ret:
+            self._restart_watcher()
+        return ret
+
 
 class Etcd3(AbstractEtcd):
 
diff --git a/tests/test_etcd3.py b/tests/test_etcd3.py
index ace59a62..2e3ed59d 100644
--- a/tests/test_etcd3.py
+++ b/tests/test_etcd3.py
@@ -127,10 +127,16 @@ class TestPatroniEtcd3Client(BaseTestEtcd3):
         request = {'key': base64_encode('/patroni/test/leader')}
         mock_urlopen.return_value = MockResponse()
         mock_urlopen.return_value.content = '{"succeeded":true,"header":{"revision":"1"}}'
-        self.client.call_rpc('/kv/txn', {'success': [{'request_delete_range': request}]})
         self.client.call_rpc('/kv/put', request)
         self.client.call_rpc('/kv/deleterange', request)
 
+    @patch.object(urllib3.PoolManager, 'urlopen')
+    def test_txn(self, mock_urlopen):
+        mock_urlopen.return_value = MockResponse()
+        mock_urlopen.return_value.content = '{"header":{"revision":"1"}}'
+        self.client.txn({'target': 'MOD', 'mod_revision': '1'},
+                        {'request_delete_range': {'key': base64_encode('/patroni/test/leader')}})
+
     @patch('time.time', Mock(side_effect=[1, 10.9, 100]))
     def test__wait_cache(self):
         with self.kv_cache.condition: