Slightly off topic - Cannabis tincture for dogs

vickeym

I am fairly new to cannabis and I do live in a state where it is legal. A friend grows hers for use with severe arthritis pain that keeps her awake (she is 74). It is soaked in vodka, then simmered in a double boiler to reduce by almost half.

Our 60 lb dog suffers from severe anxiety. Any very load noise like thunder claps, our chainsaw, and even riding in the car. She hates to be left home but on anything more than just a quick trip she gets highly anxious and scared to teh point of trembling and constant heavy panting. We don't have anyone we can leave her with when we need to go into town (which is over an hour away.) And she really hates being left home alone.

Wondering if it is safe to give her a dropper full of the tincture before we are ready to leave to try and calm her anxiety. Another friend has been giving a couple drops a night to her cat who has issues and will wake up and owl all night so neither was getting any sleep. It has been several weeks and they are both sleeping now. There have been no "visible" issues from this. But I don't want to risk doing something to hurt my girl.

Torey

@vickeym

I have a friend who is using CBD oil to treat arthritic pain and inflammation in her old dog but that is a different product from a tincture so not sure what the dosage would be.

I would think that the dosage would be based on the animal's weight. "x" number of drops per "y" of body weight.

I would try to send a message to TGN's Doc Jones about this. https://www.thehomesteadherbalist.com/home

Co-incidentally, there is another vet Dr. Jones who has mentioned treating with CBD in some of his blogs. This is a link to a podcast he did on CBD oil for Cats & Dogs. (I haven't listened to this). https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-bmatp-be351a?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share

This site is for sales of CBD oil but has good information. There is a bit about dogs with anxiety part way down the page. Again it is oil so not sure about the dosage difference between oil and tincture. https://market.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/products/cbd-oil-for-dogs#B4

Hopefully there is someone else on the forum who has personal experience with this.

The Gardening Groomer

Have you tried getting her a thunder shirt? It's a tight kind of sweater, it has really helped a lot of dogs I've personally worked with who have anxiety issues. I've seen a lot of success with CBD oil as well, so maybe a combination of the two could help?

As fas as CBD oil dosage for dogs go, there are many charts online if you do an image search, it just depends on what percentage the oil is. :)

GardenMama

While I'm not against using homemade items for pets (or people) this might be where I would err on the side of caution and opt for a full spectrum CBD versus a full cannabis extract.

Full spectrum CBD has terpenes that work synergistically and allow for better absorption than CBD isolate.

There are products formulated specially for pets that will come with appropriate dosing materials.

I'm always leery of giving a pet a product containing psychoactive levels of thc as there isnt a lot of research that supports its safety and expected reactions.

JodieDownUnder

@vickeym if I had an animal that needed it I would certainly have a go but would use cbd oil rather than tincture. I know in the scheme of things it’s not a lot of alcohol but! Avocado oil would be a good carrier.

vickeym

Thank you all for your help. Will look into the information links provided. I am interested in getting her some CBD oil instead of the tincture, but on a small income it is not only very expensive but the nearest store that carries anything is about 85 miles away. Will be saving to purchase some seeds of a variety with the high CBD instead of the THC. Would love to make my own for her, but I work with what I have right now. So will try making an oil for her, while I try to access some CBD strains.

Torey

@vickeym You could try homeopathic remedies for your dog. Gelsemium is a common remedy given for anxiety before or during thunderstorms. It is also for fear of anticipated events so might help with fear of going in a car, too. It is a very common homeopathic remedy so should be available at any health food store or natural pharmacy that carries homeopathic remedies. Or it can be purchased on Amazon and is quite inexpensive.

vickeym

@torey Thank you. Will look into that as well. I hate for her to be so stressed out. Especially when at the same time she begs to go for rides as well. And we are trying to clear property for larger gardens, pasture and where we plan to build our house and doing it all with a chainsaw.