Can CBD Help your Pet?
More and more people are turning to CBD for a variety of their pet’s health ailments—anxiety being one of them. Although there has been limited research and academic study on the effects of CBD on animals, it’s thought that CBD interacts with an animal’s nervous system in generally the same way that it interacts with a human’s nervous system.
For those of us with anxious dogs, we have all been here: It’s the Fourth of July and your dog’s a nervous wreck for the few days leading up to the Fourth and for the few days after. After a while you just can’t wait for the fireworks to stop and for your little guy or girl to get a break from the agony it looks like they are going through.
Let’s face it, watching our four-legged friends be in pain or uncomfortable is one of the worst things to go through. As people who don’t have pets don’t normally understand, we know that our dog is a part of the family. They give us their uncompromising love, loyalty, and companionship, and in return, it’s our job to take care of them.
And seeing them pacing, panting, crying, or worse, tearing up the house or running away in their attempt to escape the noise is a painful thing to watch. And it’s not just fireworks, dogs can get anxiety from other loud noises, from being away from you, from having too many people around, car rides or from anything that mixes up their daily routine.
Animals Have Endocannabinoid Systems, Too
According to Dr. Duncan Lascelles, Professor of Surgery and Pain Management at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, dogs have the same natural cannabinoid receptors as humans, found in the dog’s brain and peripheral nervous system.
Specific doses and bodily interactions may differ, but all animals have an endocannabinoid system (ECS), a bodily communication system of receptors and sensors which involves physiological processes such as appetite, pain sensation, mood, and memory, much the same as humans.
In fact, every single vertebrate and invertebrate are known to have an ECS—the most primitive being the sea-squirts, an animal which evolved over 600 million years ago.
CBD, your Dog, and You
A series of preliminary studies done in 2016 by Stephanie McGrath, D.V.M., a veterinarian and assistant professor of neurology at Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, found that 89 percent of dogs suffering from epilepsy who received CBD in a clinical trial had a reduction in the frequency of seizures.
Despite needing more data and larger studies, after that study and others, she remarked “I feel really comfortable at this point, given all of our clinical trials and our initial research, that it’s a safe product.”
And while there isn’t a ton of data about animals and CBD, there has been increasing research showing the positive effects that CBD has on human anxiety. As we point out in The Health Benefits of CBD, A study published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) found that, within the study, the group which received the CBD had significantly less social anxiety than the group that did not receive the CBD.
This, along with other studies and mountains of anecdotal evidence, all point towards CBD being an effective treatment for anxiety in humans. And this means it is likely that CBD affects your dog’s endocannabinoid system in much the same way.
Pet Owners and CBD
Despite the lack of completely sufficient data, the availability of CBD in stores across the country and online means people are taking their pets’ health into their own hands. A survey published in the Journal of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association found that, out of 632 people, 72 percent reported using or having used a hemp product for their dog (and 104 tried it with their cat) and 64 percent felt that it helped their pets.
The great part is that, because there are no known harmful side effects of CBD in animals (or humans for that matter), you can experiment with your own pet. Whether you are administering the CBD via hard treats, powder packets, or tinctures, you have the ability to try it out and try different doses to see how it affects your particular dog’s anxiety.
It’s just important to remember that all pet supplements may not be created equal and even with claiming good dosages, it’s hard to tell how much a dog is absorbing from dry treats and powders.
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Hemp Infused Salmon Oil Give your pets the powerhouse combination of all natural Wild-Alaskan salmon oil infused with Hemp Oil for Daily Wellness! Our Extra Strength salmon oil is simply a double dose of our hemp oil to help satisfy the needs of larger animals and animals requiring more joint and hip support. |
Try CBD with your Pet Today
At Urban Roots Hemp Co., our 2-in-1 Salmon Oil & CBD supplement will supply your animal with the recommended dosage of Salmon Oil ( which, in addition to anxiety, has a ton of other health benefits for animals), as well as a proper dose of CBD. Most treats and other CBD products geared towards animals are not effectively dosed because they don't take into account the weight of the animal, which means they end up being underdosed.
In addition to our Salmon Oil & CBD supplement, our CBD Daily unflavored tinctures work just as well with animals as they do with people. Again, just give it a try and see if it helps your pet's anxiety, appetite, movement, joint pain, or a host of other issues they may be suffering from.
If your little guy or girl suffers from anxiety then you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain from having them try CBD and seeing how they respond. It’s safer than giving them Benadryl to make them drowsy, or any other medication designed for humans. Nevertheless, it is always a good idea to consult your veterinarian just to get their input and to keep them in the loop on your dog’s health.
You want your four-legged friend to be as healthy and happy as possible, and we are just starting to see how CBD can help make that happen.