Health & Medicine
Pot for Pets? Some Veterinarians Claim Weed could Help Animals Deal with Chronic Pain
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Apr 12, 2013 03:05 PM EDT
Sure we love to pamper our pets. We love to buy them lots of treats, and we may even love to buy them little coats or jackets to wear on walks in the winter. (Not really sure how much they love that, but that's another story.) In any case, there might be another opportunity to spoil our babies in a whole new way.
With the United States starting to bend the rules on legalized marijuana possession, some veterinarians are saying that people may not be the only ones who can benefit from an occasional puff. In fact, some even believe that pot could help dogs or other animals deal with chronic pain and other debilitating conditions.
Now, let's first set the record straight. This doesn't mean blowing ganja in your pets face, nor does it mean putting a blunt on their paw and trying to teach them to inhale. No, sir.
According to Dr. Doug Kramer in an interview with Vice Magazine, it's the exact opposite. When his pooch, Nikita, was suffering from terminal cancer, he decided to ease her pain by adding cannabis to her diet. This is done, he explained, through a tincture, or food cooked in oil or butter made from cannabis.
Kramer said marijuana can also be used to give finicky pets the munchies.
"We're using it on cats ... as an appetite stimulant," he said, noting how pets have trouble eating when they're ill.
In fact, any animal with cannabinoid receptors - pigs, chickens, monkeys and rats, for instance -- could feel the effects of THC.
Learn something new every day.
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First Posted: Apr 12, 2013 03:05 PM EDT
Sure we love to pamper our pets. We love to buy them lots of treats, and we may even love to buy them little coats or jackets to wear on walks in the winter. (Not really sure how much they love that, but that's another story.) In any case, there might be another opportunity to spoil our babies in a whole new way.
With the United States starting to bend the rules on legalized marijuana possession, some veterinarians are saying that people may not be the only ones who can benefit from an occasional puff. In fact, some even believe that pot could help dogs or other animals deal with chronic pain and other debilitating conditions.
Now, let's first set the record straight. This doesn't mean blowing ganja in your pets face, nor does it mean putting a blunt on their paw and trying to teach them to inhale. No, sir.
According to Dr. Doug Kramer in an interview with Vice Magazine, it's the exact opposite. When his pooch, Nikita, was suffering from terminal cancer, he decided to ease her pain by adding cannabis to her diet. This is done, he explained, through a tincture, or food cooked in oil or butter made from cannabis.
Kramer said marijuana can also be used to give finicky pets the munchies.
"We're using it on cats ... as an appetite stimulant," he said, noting how pets have trouble eating when they're ill.
In fact, any animal with cannabinoid receptors - pigs, chickens, monkeys and rats, for instance -- could feel the effects of THC.
Learn something new every day.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone