Pot for Pets? It’s a Growing Trend
If you thought weed was only enjoyable for humans, boy, think again. Marijuana is no longer just a medicine for those on two of us two-legged mammals. A Los Angeles veterinarian is now preaching the potential for animals to receive therapeutic benefit from cannabis, enabling pet owners to ease the suffering of their furry friends during the final years of their lives. Doug Kramer seems to think that there is significant benefit. His huskie Nikita was suffering from terminal cancer and he had no remedy for her suffering.
He told the American Veterinary Medical Association, “Nikita was wasting away, and she’d stopped eating,” he said. “I’d exhausted every available pharmaceutical pain option, even steroids. At that point, it was a quality of life issue, and I felt like I’d try anything to ease her suffering.”
He started feeding her medical marijuana through a glycerin tincture and soon her appetite returned and Nikita began meeting Kramer at the front door again. Though it wasn’t a turn-around cure, it did ease her suffering and resulted in a couple more months that the best friends could spend together.
And Kramer doesn’t limit medical marijuana’s benefits to canines, either. He says that his clinics are recommending cannabis for cats, “as much, if not more [than on dogs], as an appetite stimulant. Cats are finicky, especially when they’re really sick. Any animal that has the cannabinoid receptors would respond [to THC] the same way we do.”
If your pet is suffering and you’re in a legal state, this sounds like something you may want to check out. While there are arguments on both sides, it’s advisable to keep your product out of your pet’s reach and if you do plan to try it, check with your vet first and start out on a small dosage using butter, oil or the aforementioned tincture.