Canna-Cat and Canna-Canine: The medicinal marijuana for pets

Pet owners claim that medical marijuana has helped their dogs through pain and chronic illness.

17:07 09 June 2014

Some veterinarians, pet owners, and alternative vet carers are now using medical marijuana to help pets with pain and chronic illnesses. 

 

Among those who support the use of this alternative medicine is “Vet Guru” Doug Kramer who said that he feels obligated to speak about the benefits of the drug. 

 

“I grew tired of euthanizing pets when I wasn't doing everything I could to make their lives better. I felt like I was letting them down.'

 

He continued by saying that he dosed his Siberian husky Nikita with cannabis after she had surgery to remove tumors. The doctor said that he saw an impressive result. 

 

“Nikita was wasting away, and she’d stopped eating. I’d exhausted every available pharmaceutical pain option, even steroids. At that point, it was a quality-of-life issue, and I felt like I’d try anything to ease her suffering."

 

Although the doctor admitted that the cannabis did not cure his dog, he said that his pet was freed from pain and that the drug improved the quality of her last days. 

 

Meanwhile, other experts say that more research is needed before cannabis can be prescribed for pets. 

 

Dr Robin Downing, a pain management expert and hospital director at the Downing Center for Animal Pain Management in Windsor, Colorado said: “We have no efficacy data in animals. We have zero safety data in animals. We have no dosing data in animals.”