#cats Archives - Canna Angel of Coachella Valley CA

Cannabis Corner has always been at the forefront of advocating cannabis for pets. Just as the nursing profession has been educating the public in all forms of safe cannabis use through organizations like the American Cannabis Nurses Association, Cal NORML, and the Society for Cannabis Clinicians, we now have veterinarians forming the Veterinary Cannabis Society (VCS).

All non-humans have an endocannabinoid system. Pets, as well as pet owners, can develop endocannabinoid deficiency syndrome. Pets have pain, anxiety, cancer, or seizures. We want pets to recover from their injuries without complications of infection or loss of limb.

According to a Colorado State University (CSU) Study around 3 to 5 percent of all dogs have genetic epilepsy, and 14 million dogs are affected by arthritis. CSU is running two trials at the CSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital, studying how effectively CBD can treat osteoarthritis.

In previous articles, Cannabis Corner has detailed how the complexity of the plant makes treating with medical cannabis a specialty medical practice. Education for the provider is akin to studying for board certification in other disciplines. Each species is different. Dogs have very few CB1 receptors, the receptor for delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). It is imperative that many pets only be treated with cannabidiol (CBD).

“The VCS is committed to bringing together veterinarians, pet parents, and cannabis companies to ensure the appropriate and safe use of medicinal cannabis in pets”. Their website shows the breadth of veterinary reach across the world. From the Canadian Association of Veterinary Cannabinoid Medicine, a Russian and Latina organization, studies in Germany on pets, all coming together sharing the science of cannabis treatment for non-humans.

Pet cannabis medicine is starting to discover which cannabinoids are most effective. CBDA, for instance, is a COX-2 inhibitor. COX-2 is an enzyme involved in inflammation, so CBDA might be good to include in the profile of molecules we are looking for to treat that.

While cannabis or (at least) cannabis extracts are permitted for medical use in nearly all states now except Idaho, California is one of the few states that has taken the first tentative steps toward providing some legal clarity on the status of cannabis and cannabinoids for veterinary use. Currently, the State Board of Veterinary Medicine can discipline a veterinarian for discussing cannabis for pets.

Several bills in the Assembly are addressing the issue of allowing Veterinary use of cannabis for pets. “SB-627 Cannabis and cannabis products: medicinal use on an animal: veterinary medicine”, failed miserable last year. A new bill introduced this year, AB 384, again by Ash Kalra, would prevent the Veterinary Medical Board from disciplining a vet for recommending cannabis, but does not actually define cannabis products for animals as medicine, as SB 627 did.

What lawmakers fail to understand is recreational laws allow pet owners to acquire cannabis for themselves yet do not have education on the toxicities, product safety, and the individual physiology of animals vs humans. It is important that pet owners not give the same products as humans. Each species has its own distribution and quantity of CB1 and CB2 receptors. Issues most needing cannabis medicine are gastrointestinal issues, pain, and inflammation, and seizures. Since the passage of Prop 64, there has been an increase in emergency admissions for cannabis toxicity from pets eating an owners’ edible.

With Oklahoma’s passage of medical marijuana law, advocacy organizations say there is now only one state in the entire union without some sort of legal provision for medicinal use of either herbal cannabis or cannabinoid extracts: Idaho.

The VCS will be lobbying for clarity in laws state-wide, participating in research on what products are tested and regulated under the standards of MAUCRSA, California’s cannabis framework. Veterinarians all over the world are seeing increased toxicosis in pets due to owners using products for humans.

Budtenders are no more able to educate a customer on the treatment of arthritis than is a guy giving you a dry martini in an upscale bar. The tortuous sausage-making of legislative bills for cannabis continues to ensure access is only determined by zip code. To support legislation allowing Veterinarians to recommend cannabis for non-humans go to the website PetCannabis.org and sign the petition.

Four years ago, the landscape for veterinarians educating or recommending cannabis for pets was abysmally absent. State laws legalizing cannabis allowed Medical Doctors, Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine and Doctor of Podiatric Medicine to verify that a patient has a serious medical condition that would benefit from the use of marijuana. But it excluded a Doctor of Veterinarian Medicine. Just the mention of marijuana for pets sent a veterinarian to shiver in silence and run in the other direction. That changed in September of 2018 when CA became the first state to protect veterinary license-holders from disciplinary action solely for discussing the therapeutic use of cannabis in animals. With 10,000 research studies on cannabis mostly with human use, veterinarians sent a Paul Revere signal for research on dogs, cats, and the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in animals.

In last week’s article, I discussed the ECS, discovered in 1992 for all living Animalia except insects. The animal and human ECS are similar in response to cellular processes. The differences are in the distribution of the receptors. CB1 receptors in the hindbrain structures of canines create a unique neurological action “static ataxia” when stimulated by delta9- Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). While not fatal it is scary for the dog and owner and often sends the animal to the emergency room.

In a study of seven representative species of invertebrates, McPartland 2006, evaluated seven species of invertebrates by a tritiated ligand binding assay and identified cannabinoid receptors in non-mammalian species including birds, reptiles, and fish. Stephen Cital a Registered Veterinarian Technician (RVT), researches, writes, and lectures on how to treat all pets with broad spectrum hemp that contains all the cannabinoids, enzymes, and terpenes in the plant devoid of THC.

A researcher from Colorado State University recently reported finding 89 percent of epileptic dogs had fewer seizures when taking the chicken-flavored CBD oil, as compared to about 20 percent that were on a placebo. Another project, conducted at Cornell University, appeared to show that dogs treated with CBD oil have a clinically significant reduction in pain and increase inactivity.

Many pet owners do not take seriously the complications of using cannabis with THC. Pet cannabis products in the dispensaries can be used in concentrations of CBD:THC 30:1 or CBD:THC of 20:1 for intense pain or cancer. Severe pet conditions like cancer need to have medical personnel involved. There are many hemp products that would be more advisable due to their low percentage of less than 0.3% THC or the hemp will be illegal. If, a batch of hemp tested by regulators contains more than 0.3% THC the whole batch will be disposed of.

Pets arrive unconscious at a veterinarian’s office with owners who are reluctant to fess up when questioned about cannabis use. The most frequent conditions discussed were pain management, anxiety, seizures, and storm/fireworks phobias.

Medical cannabis for pets usually comes as a liquid oil or as treats. Liquids are preferable because the dosing can be accurately controlled and because CBD may be better absorbed through the tissues of the mouth rather than through the digestive tract.

Vaporized or smoked cannabis should NEVER be used with pets. This can damage their lungs and can lead to accidental overdose. Another renown veterinarian, Robert Silver, has researched the ECS of pets. Silver recommends a dosage of hemp oil supplementation (based on body weight of feline and canine candidates) to be followed. His recommendation is a range of hemp based on weight: 0.1mg/kg to 0.5mg/kg for anxiety.

Similarly, edibles for humans should not be given to your pet as they are impossible to dose accurately and they may contain ingredients (such as raisins, chocolate, etc.) that are toxic to animals. If you put the dropper in the pet’s mouth, remember to wipe the dropper off or you will get mold or a variety of microorganisms contaminating the bottle. For more information go to https://www.projectcbd.org/medicine/cbd-cannabis-pets-pain

For questions email info@ruthahillrn.com

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