Does CBD work for pets?

Ok for those not interested in the details. YES! CBD can be great for our four legged friends! A lot of you have likely heard a little about CBD for pets but there are still a lot of questions we need to ask. How can CBD help my pet? How should I administer it? What dosage is recommended? Why does it work? Can it be harmful?

We have introduced our new pet line with 2 tinctures seperate flavors for Dogs & Cats: PET CBD

All great questions so let’s touch on each one.

What are the benefits of CBD for pets?

• Promote General Health
• Reduce Inflammation
• Reduce Pain
• Increase appetite
• Reduce Anxiety (Social anxiety; Car anxiety; Veterinary fears; Thunderstorms; Separation anxiety)
• Alleviate Cancer related health problems
• Alleviate Osteoarthritis
• Anticonvulsive effects
• Palliative care
• No toxicity or negative side effects *Unlike the damage incurred on the liver and kidneys with prescription meds

How Should I Administer CBD To My Pet?

So this is a neat little fact that you may or may not be aware of. An animal’s biological system shares a 70% similarity to ours. Pretty cool! Also that endocannabinoid system that we all have and naturally produce cannabinoids in our brain…yes that’s part of the 70% and our furry friends have them too. So they can benefit from CBD just as much as we can. And administration is pretty similar to how we would take it. If your giving your pet a tincture you can either put the dropper directly into the dog’s mouth under his/her tongue (which could get a little hairy dependent on your dog) or you can just place it on your dog’s food just prior to consumption *That’s my personally preferred method but to each his own. The only thing you want to keep in mind if you have one of those dogs that’s just a grazer you’ll want to time putting the oil on his food around when she’s going to eat it because it will degrade if left on food for more than 30 minutes. It’s not the end of the world but if you planned on given him 10mg he could be getting only half of that or less.

What is the correct dosage for my pets?

So just like people there is no one size fits all. And there are some differences in pets as well. The way that a pet metabolizes CBD is a little bit different then people (it stays in their system longer). Also there has been some research showing negative side effects from THC in pets. No research has shown negative side effects from CBD. So why is THC potentially bad and CBD ok? Personally I don’t think either are bad it’s just a matter of proper dosing and the differences in metabolism. However, the psychoactive properties of THC can confuse and cause anxiety. Animals are more receptive to the cannabinoids and they can last longer in their system.

Step 1:  Make sure that any CBD pet product you get is whole hemp processed (so all phytocannabinoids are in there), grown domestically in the good old USA (so we can be sure it’s free of pesticides), is 3^rd party tested, and has less than .3% THC.

Step 2: Weigh your dog and convert that weight to kg. Easier said than done for some. If you’re not sure and your German Sheppard doesn’t feel like getting on your scale today, make your best guess. All we are doing is getting a baseline to start with and you will adjust based on the effects. It works faster on animals than people so you’ll know quickly!

Step 3: You want to start off giving your pet .3mg of active CBD for every kilogram of weight. So if your dog weighs 20lbs just convert that to Kg (20/2.2 = 9.09kg) Then multiply by .3 (9.09 x .3 = 2.7mg) So 3mg of  CBD would be a good daily starting point.

Here’s a chart up to 100lbs *For those of you with dogs over 100lbs god bless you!

Ok so you have a starting point and although more research needs to be conducted in this area thankfully there have been a number of studies looking into the pharmacology and pharmacokinetics of CBD in animals.

Step 4: Finalize Dosing. After about 3-5 days, increase or decrease as necessary (lets say it makes your dog more sleepy during the day for example reduce dosage and give with dinner). Or perhaps your dog shows some improvement but not enough. Just increase the dosage by giving twice a day and repeat the 3-5 day assessment period.

Why does CBD Work On My Pet?

The same reasons CBD works for us. We all already create cannabinoids it’s part of your and your pets biological system. CBD triggers the release of cannabinoids into the endocannabinoid system in animals which then attach to the same CB1 and CB2 receptors we have, but for a longer period of time which likely accounts for the increased effectiveness we hear about in individual reports.

Can it be harmful?

 The great thing about CBD is that there are no toxicity levels found to date. Your dog could accidently get into your CBD stash and while she may poop it out or take a long nap no research has shown negative side effects to date and I have not been able to find any case studies that didn’t involve THC. No liver damage and no kidney damage unlike what is currently being promoted and pushed.

Promotes Overall Animal Health:

CBD taken at low levels on a daily basis can certainly promote your Pets’ overall health and have a positive impact on his or her day to day life. From reducing inflammation to aiding in social anxiety situations CBD can benefit your pet. We would certainly recommend a daily dose.

And as always with anything we read or review there is more knowledge that we need to seek and more research conducted!