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What is Homeopathic CBD Pet Care?
Pets all over the country are waking up and feeling as happy as their owners thanks to the latest homeopathic remedy to hit the markets, CBD. Cannabidiol (CBD) is a natural compound that is derived from the hemp plant. Hemp is the natural state of most marijuana plants in the world when they are not being cultivated and selectively bred for THC potency by humans.
The exception to this rule is a few landraces (native strains) like the Thai and Afghani strains. These two strains are thought to have natural THC potency that developed without human intervention. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the psychoactive compound that is associated with the euphoric inebriation that led to the criminalization of marijuana.
Since hemp is now decriminalized at a Federal level, anyone from your grandmother to your pet can now safely benefit from CBD because we all have cannabinoid receptors throughout our bodies. These cannabinoid receptors are found in the nervous system and immune system, which would form a logical basis for why CBD is so effective as a homeopathic medicine. Because the plant-derived CBD of cannabis is close to the endocannabinoids produced by our own bodies, it is easy to see why hemp-based CBD extracts create such a safe and effective elixir.
Proponents of CBD like the Emperor of Hemp, Jack Herer, have long boasted of its miraculous health benefits. But, because marijuana was criminalized across the United States, few studies were allowed, and the anecdotal evidence was being suppressed. Nowadays, it is legal to obtain CBD in 47 states for medicinal reasons and, in some states, without a prescription from a doctor.
In order for marijuana to meet the standards of legal hemp, however, it must contain no more than .3 percent THC. These negligible amounts of THC will not cause any of the psychoactive pleasure-seeking addictive behaviors and the negative side-effects such as paranoia and anxiety that are associated with marijuana use. As a result of this detoxification of cannabis, the legalization of Hemp-derived CBD extract is now available for a wide spectrum of patients seeking CBD to use in place of pharmacological medicines.
What are the Everyday Uses of CBD for Pets?
If your dog is aggressive and likes to chew up furniture and clothes or urinates inside the home, CBD may work to calm them down and domesticate them for home living. The same is true if your dog is the phobic type that barks every time that any audio cue allows it. If you are like some owners, you may see a complete 360 in the sociability of your pet’s personality.
You may even see a benefit when taking your dog for a walk if they are the type that tends to choke themselves on the leash. This reflex isn’t healthy for dogs but is a symptom of being wound up and anxious. You may also be able to remove the muzzle when you walk them if you use CBD and find that it calms them down enough to socialize with strangers without all the drama.
Most people just see that their pets are having trouble walking as they get older, noticeably stiff and unhappy. Giving them a dose of CBD to wake up that spry puppy hiding deep inside of them can improve their sense of well-being and mobility at the same time. Let your dog reawaken the wonder years of their life when they roam around thoughtlessly without inflammation and pain, thanks to CBD.
If you want a friendly pooch who will not have to be disciplined and corrected manually, CBD oil and treats may be just the right solution. A docile dog who is active but not sedated, one that is friendly but not overbearing, and one who is calm and at peace with himself all add up to an improved relationship with your pet. Because the cost and risks are low, it is worth trying CBD as an alternative therapy if your dog is not the chipper and lovable legend of the family that you’d like him to be.
What Are the Practical Uses of CBD Supported by Studies?
New studies and anecdotal evidence continue to find CBD beneficial for the treatment of pain, seizures, inflammation, cancer, anxiety, insomnia, substance abuse cessation, and a variety of other ailments. And because our pets tend to suffer from many of the same ailments, it is no wonder that owners are experimenting with homeopathic CBD as an alternative to the toxic pharmaceuticals.
Epilepsy and Seizures
Pet owners can save their pets from liver-destroying antiseizure medications by using CBD as an alternative or a supplement. Because CBD is metabolized in the liver, it can affect the metabolization of numerous medications given to your pet. Medical studies demonstrate the effectiveness of CBD for epilepsy and seizures in addition to the anecdotal evidence that CBD may boost the effectiveness of antiseizure medications even if you are not willing to completely remove your pet from drugs.
Chronic Pain and Inflammation
CBD is well-known for its effectiveness in treating chronic pain disorders like arthritis. Many pets develop arthritis as they age and can become crippled without taking medications to manage the pain. Because endocannabinoids are used by our bodies to calm down overactive nerves and reduce inflammation signals, it is easy to see how a plant-based substitute can magnify the effects when your pet’s body fails to manage pain and inflammation on its own.
Anxiety Reduction
The modern household dog in the United States suffers from a great deal of anxiety. Because U.S. dogs rarely live in large households with lots of regular visitors, they may not obtain enough exposure to strange people. As a result, they can become defensive and overwhelmed by any subtle changes in the atmosphere.
Some dogs are also confined into a small area and unable to obtain appropriate exercise. Yet, others can become phobic of thunder, doorbells, or any unusual sounds because they do not receive enough comforting when owners are away long hours of the day working. Having CBD on hand for pets can send calming signals to their nerves and ease the mental anxiety that they feel from their supersonic hearing and other sensational meltdowns.
Appetite Enhancer
If your dog or cat is turning their nose up at that can of food that you have so elegantly mixed and laid before them, they may be suffering from appetite problems. In many cases, they may be having stomach problems because they don’t chew their food properly and suffer from cramps and nausea as a result. Studies show that CBD can help reduce these painful and uncomfortable feelings to help your pet share his best side again.
Cancer Treatment and Prevention
Because CBD has such a potent effect on the immune system, it is not surprising that it can boost the body’s natural ability to prevent and fight off cancers. You may not know that your pet is suffering from cancer unless you take them to a vet for a professional diagnosis. Cancer will make them nauseous and can cripple them with chronic pain.
You may not know that your dog is sick because dogs inherently try to cover up that they are sick. This is a natural instinct that reaches deep into their roots from their wolf pack progenitors. The weak and injured member of a wolf pack can become a prime target for other members of the pack to kill and eat when lean times fall upon them.
You will also find this with males in the human species. Men tend to neglect medical problems and will put them off until they reach a climax. This is another manner of demonstrating how closely related we all are and why CBD can work so well in pets as it does in humans.
Numerous Ailments
No matter what your pet may be suffering, the symptoms tend to manifest in the same manner. They will appear to be in pain, can become nauseous, and may have a change in behavior as a psychoactive response to the pain and sickness. Therefore, no matter what your pet may be suffering, CBD can play a critical role in rehabilitating them and mitigating the symptoms.
Precautions Regarding CBD Use in Pets
Because much of the evidence supporting the use of CBD in pets is anecdotal, it is uncertain how clinically correct these scientific conclusions may be. We tend to create anthropomorphic conceptions of our pets and think that we can tell how they are responding to treatment. While we may be able to sense a positive change in behavior, more subtle responses may have more to do with our own imaginations.
When it comes to negative side-effects, if your dog appears to be dizzy, lethargic, or eating too much, these may be signs that the dosage of the CBD is too high. These symptoms are not life-threatening and would at most create some discomfort in your pet. The real trauma happens when pets are inadvertently exposed to CBD extracts that also contain THC.
THC can create toxicity in pets when it is ingested. If your pet is experiencing tremors, agitation, excessive drooling, vomiting, panting heavily, and is suffering from a negative change in behavior such as aggressiveness, these can all be signs that the CBD product that you are using is not pure. And this is one of the key problems in the industry, regulation, and safety.
Yet, there are some ways that you can tell whether the CBD product you are giving your pet has been lab-tested and is safe. Reputable vendors will provide a Certificate of Analysis (COA) to prove the safety of their products. This COA will assure the quality, potency, and consistency of the CBD used in the pet product.
Any pet product with a seal from the National Animal Supplement Council (NASC) to endorse safety is a far safer bet than unsupported manufacturers. Some pet products will also boast of the quality of their manufacturing processes on the packaging to set the quality of their products apart from the competition.
Of course, you should never give products that have been deemed safe for humans to pets and vice-versa. Pets can be sensitive to chemicals that we consider safe for human consumption like Xylitol and even caffeine. Furthermore, when CBD is mixed in with ordinary pet treats, those treats may have animal byproducts that are toxic to both small dogs and humans.
You should always do your research and ensure that the quality of pet products that you are buying can be verified in some manner. The common forms of CBD for pets come as CBD oil that can be added to their regular food and special treats that are infused with CBD. There is talk in the veterinary field about creating an IV infusion of water-soluble CBD for pets to maximize the absorption, which is typically quite low when they consume CBD orally.
Humans also are not able to absorb CBD very readily when it is consumed orally. For this reason, most people with very serious needs will use a practice called dabbing to inhale concentrated vapors of CBD from fresh waxy resins. Because your pet is not going to be able to use a dab rig to smoke pure CBD extracts, owners should be reasonable about the results that they may achieve from CBD oil and treats.
Nevertheless, the fact that it is hard for pets to absorb too much CBD at one time makes it a safer choice for therapy. This creates a much lower risk in experimenting. The biggest thing to watch out for is interactions with other medications that your dog is taking, something that must be discussed with a veterinarian knowledgeable on the subject.
Clinical Research and Key Facts on CBD for Pets
The field of CBD treatments for pets is rapidly growing but still in its infancy. A few studies have been carried out to determine how effective CBD is at meeting its prospective goals. One such study was carried out by Stephanie McGrath, D.V.M. in 2016. Stephanie is a veterinarian with a private practice who also works as an assistant professor of neurology at Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Her first study examined how canines were able to metabolize CBD and whether CBD presented any imminent threats to their health. She then conducted two separate studies using clinical trials to determine whether CBD helped dogs who were suffering from epilepsy in one and osteoarthritis in the other. Stephanie has not yet published her final results but is optimistic, especially considering the Cornell University study that concluded that a twice-daily dose of 2mg of CBD per kilogram could alleviate symptoms of osteoarthritis in canines.
Stephanie is believed to be the first pioneer to study the effects of CBD in pets. Because her research is still in its infancy, we can have to rely on the commonality of our CBD systems and the similar systems in our pets to remain hopeful. Because the similarities between human and canine systems is so well-established, this is sufficient to add a sense of confidence to any human studies carried out on CBD benefits.
Judy Morgan, D.V.M., the author of "Yin & Yang Nutrition for Dogs,” recommends starting off your pets with 1mg for every 10 lbs. of their weight and administering it twice a day. You then increase the dosage and monitor them. Because CBD builds up a level in the system, you should not expect to see any dramatic changes overnight.
Stephanie McGrath is currently researching the effects of 5mg of CBD per pound (twice a day) on canines. This leaves a lot of room for owners to experiment themselves because CBD is non-toxic and easily tolerated. For most owners, it will be a matter of economics regarding what dosage is sufficient to alleviate the symptoms without sedating Fido too badly or blowing through extract like water.
It is important to note that most pet owners need to actively seek CBD from their veterinarians as an alternative homeopathic therapy. This has to do with the gray areas of the law that were written generally for doctors to prescribe it without defining any special permissions to veterinarian doctors. California is the only state to enact legislation that specifically addresses the right of veterinarians to openly discuss CBD alternatives with pet owners.
If your veterinarian isn’t hip to the CBD therapies, you may want to refer them to veterinarycannabis.org. This website provides educational courses and consultations to help you and your veterinarian understand which products you should use and the proper dosage. As stated, the greatest care must be taken when your pet is already being treated by a vet because CBD can have interactions with other medications prescribed.
The FDA recently approved of the first prescription cannabis extract called Epidiolex. This medicine is used to treat rare forms of epilepsy but can be prescribed by doctors for off-label usage such as medicating your pet. The approval of Epidiolex for young children with severe seizure disorders is a testament to the safety of CBD in humans and by analog the presumed safety in our pets.
There are many people who smoke marijuana who have blown smoke into their dogs faces, thinking that their pet would enjoy it as much as they were. The reality is that THC can cause neurotoxicity in your pets. This is why it is so important to find a proper extract instead of trying to hotbox with your pooch and hope that his arthritis goes away.
As stated, CBD is not something that you take one time and immediately see results for most conditions. Like many medications out on the market, you have to continually maintain a level to see the benefits. If you are committed to improving the health of your pet and doing your own anecdotal study on the effectiveness of CBD, you’d might as well give it a shot instead of waiting years of the research to catch up to the interest on the subject.
Not every pet is going to react the same way to CBD when it is administered. But, because CBD is not psychoactive, there is no reason why any pet owner should worry about the CBD leading to unusual behaviors as marijuana may.
Conclusion
Cannabidiol (CBD) appears to be safe for pets to take and appears to be effective for a variety of conditions. Although the research is still in its early stages, there do not appear to be any safety risks associated with pure CBD extracts from a reliable manufacturer. The major concern with dosing dogs and cats with CBD oil and feeding them CBD-infused treats appears to concern the purity of the CBD and whether the CBD may interact with other medications.
Being careful about which products you buy for your pets by reading the labels and researching the products thoroughly is the first line of defense. The second line of defense would be finding a veterinarian who is educated on the off-label uses of CBD and the scope of medicinal treatment strategies applicable. The third line of defense is simply starting off your pet slowly on a low CBD dosage and slowly increasing it to monitor their behaviors and the effectiveness.
For most pet owners, the choice of whether to pursue homeopathic CBD therapies will come down to how willing they may be to try CBD themselves for ailments. Once they see that CBD is safe and effective on their own pain, inflammation, or anxiety, they may feel more comfortable with administering it to their animals. Of course, even if they never try CBD and would like to first see how their pet responds, the research on children with severe seizure disorders supports the presumption that CBD is a safe and effective solution for many immune and nervous system related disorders.
If you are ready to make the commitment to your pet's health. Give them a CBD treat and see how they respond. Today is the day to start bonding and making that positive change in your lives.
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