When Traci’s 12-year-old Dalmatian cross was diagnosed with hip dysplasia, there weren’t many options: expensive surgery that may not work, agony for her companion, or euthanasia.
Rather than put her dog down, she decided to try something different – and both unproven and (usually) illegal. She gave her dog some of the cannabis-derived CBD oil she takes for her own health conditions.
“Within a minute or two [of taking a dose of the oil], you can see how his gait changes, ”says Traci, whose surname Stuff has agreed not to use. She says her dog can now jump up at the front fence, go for walks, and has returned to his normal happy self. Her vet has even commented on how well he is doing, she says.
UNSPLASH / Stuff
Some owners are turning to CBD oil, derived from low-THC hemp, to treat their pets.
Traci is not alone. A growing number of people are understood to be willing to risk breaking the law to find alternative relief for their chronically-ill pets.
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Medicinal cannabis advocate Rose Renton says requests for CBD oil to treat pets is “quite a regular inquiry” for her these days. Her clients “swear by it” to treat dogs, cats and horses for a slew of issues, she says.
JOE LLOYD / Stuff
Medicinal cannabis advocate Rose Renton says requests for CBD oil to treat pets is “quite a regular inquiry” for her, these days.
CBD, or cannabidiol, is one of more than 100 active compounds found in cannabis plants. CBD is usually made from hemp, a strain of cannabis naturally low in THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient that gives human users a high) and pharmaceutical grade CBD oil often has little to no THC.
“There’s always a lot of confusion around CBD and THC, they’re lumped together,” says Renton. “They’re cousin plants, they look identical, but they have quite a different outcome.”
Traci is emphatic about the dangers of THC to dogs: “I will tell you this right now, don’t get your dog stoned. It’s not funny. It’s not fair. They don’t understand it. It’s not a joke.”
Kojirou Sasak / UNSPLASH
Attempting to make a CBD oil at home could be problematic.
According to health.govt.nz, CBD has “potential therapeutic value and little-to-no psychoactive properties” in humans. It has been used to treat a number of issues, such as seizures, inflammation, anxiety, and pain, with some users claiming a dramatic turn around in their symptoms.
A few medicinal cannabis products have been legal by prescription for humans in New Zealand since 2020, but there are no products specifically formulated for animals on the market here.
Vets can prescribe some human medicines for animals, but medicinal cannabis products are not among them. There have so far been only a handful of studies into their safety and effect on animals.
In some countries, however, CBD oil products for pets are already easily and legally obtainable, often over the counter.
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CBD oil for dogs, like this one made and sold in the US, is readily available in some countries overseas and is sometimes even sold over the counter.
In New Zealand, some people owners are turning instead to “green fairies”, who sell CBD oil products not approved for prescription, for treatments for their pets.
Green fairies’ products are often cheaper than the four products which are currently approved for human prescription, however they are illegal and you could be charged under the Misuse of Drugs Act for possessing them.
One Facebook group we contacted quoted $ 200 for a 60+ day supply of 500mg CBD isolate, for canine pain relief.
Traci became a self-styled green fairy after “a couple of severe accidents” and other health issues left her in agony and hooked on a cocktail of opioid painkillers: “I was costing New Zealand taxpayers about $ 9000 a year on pharmaceutical medication. “
She says that all changed when she stopped taking pharmaceuticals, and began treating her pain with CBD oil. She now makes her own tinctures and balms from hemp.
There are also “thousands of people treating their dogs with CBD that they’re growing themselves,” according to Traci.
Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
A hemp crop waits to be harvested in Lincolnshire for British CBD oil producer Crop England. Hemp often has low THC, the psychoactive compound in cannabis.
We talked to another pet owner, who asked not to be identified, who also chose to treat her dog with CBD oil.
She was struggling to find a vet available during the 2021 lockdown when her 6-year-old Bichon Frize suddenly started having seizures, so tried giving her a few drops of CBD oil a day.
“She went from having 10 to 14 seizures a day to two and sometimes none. It also took all the anxiety from her. She became a much more chilled out little dog. ”
Omar Marques / Getty Images
Hemp is grown industrially overseas, with CBD oil sometimes available over the counter.
Dr Liza Schneider, of Tauranga’s Holistic Vets, says “the legalities of vets being able to prescribe CBD is very limited, because there is currently no registered product for veterinary use in New Zealand.”
Vets are “under strict obligations to ensure that our patients are safe,” says Schneider. And without a product being approved, there’s no way to know for sure that it is safe.
Schneider says that attempting to make a CBD oil at home, or buy it from the black market, is problematic. Beyond being illegal, you have no way of knowing how much of each compound is in the oil, so you risk overdosing your pet.
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Vets have a duty of care to their clients, which means they can’t advocate for a product that has not been approved.
“One of the difficulties when using herbal medicine is the concentration of active ingredients,” says Schneider.
“If it’s not a pharmaceutical grade one then we can’t be confident of the exact dosage that is being given, therefore we can’t be confident about therapeutic efficacy or the potential risks to our patients.”
Currently, a vet’s only avenue for supplying pets with legal CBD is a special circumstances application to MPI to import the product from overseas, which could be a long, complex process.
Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
A trial kit of varying strengths of CDB oil, harvested in Lincolnshire for British CBD oil producer Crop England. The popularity of CBD oil from the cannabis family of plants has grown in recent years in the UK.
Massey University school of veterinary science associate professor Nick Cave specializes in small animal medicine and nutrition, and has conducted a study into the absorption of CBD oil in dogs for Hale Animal Health, a Kiwi firm working towards a legal CBD oil formulated for animals.
“It is a drug. The fact that we have distilled it out of a cannabis plant is neither here nor there,” he says.
CBD does interact with the part of the brain controlling mood, perception, sleep, anxiety, pain perception, bowel function, and immune function, says Cave, but evidence for CBD being safe and effective in dogs is only anecdotal.
“These are all potential effects and definitely warrant investigation,” says Cave. “But there are big species differences, and we don’t have those studies in dogs yet. So I definitely won’t be using CBD oil in my dogs for some. time yet. “
Michael Oxendine / UNSPLASH
THC is thought to be toxic to dogs – they can suffer confusion, seizures and even death from ingesting it.
Hale Animal Health told Stuff last year that it was seeking to “provide solid evidence through the clinical trials and registration process for our CBD products here in New Zealand.”
Studies which have been done overseas have so far yielded mixed results. In 2018, a double-blind Baylor College of Medicine study on the effect of CBD on osteoarthritis pain in dogs quickly saw significant improvement in mobility and quality of life of dogs taking the highest doses in the trial. The number of dogs in the study was small, however, and the results should only be seen as a basis for further research.
In 2020, a study by the University of Kentucky into the effect of CBD on noise induced anxiety, however, found no evidence that CBD had a noticeable effect on lowering dogs’ stress levels when scared, although it too suggested the tests weren’t enough and warranted more, better designed studies.
Tadeusz Lakot / UNSPLASH
Some dogs can suffer from mild side effects from taking CBD oil, according to The American Kennel Club.
According to the American Kennel Club, CBD oil can have some of the same side effects in dogs that it has in humans, including dry mouth (the dog will be thirstier than usual), low blood pressure, and drowsiness. The club also warns that “not all oils are the same”.
The lack of concrete medical proof doesn’t deter those who already believe in CBD’s benefits – for themselves or for their pets – however.
“Cannabis saved my life. It really did,” says Traci. “That’s why you’ll find a lot of passionate people about what it’s done for our dogs, because it’s either done for us or somebody that we love.”
