Cannabis For Your Dog: How It Can Help36604
There’s a popular medicinal herb you can give your dog these days and it is called cannabis.
Dog owners are using it to help their pets with a wide range of ailments – from anxiety to arthritis to cancer.
Are dogs going to pot?
Not exactly. The cannabis dogs are taking is hemp, not marijuana.
For a long time, hemp was illegal in the US and other nations because it got lumped in with other types of cannabis. These days, you can buy hempseed products in your nearby grocery shop – not just soaps and lotions, but hempseed protein powders and drinks like hempseed milk.
But the hemp that has therapeutic advantages for your dog is not the type lining the supermarket shelves.
We’re talking about whole herb cannabis.
So what’s the difference between hemp and marijuana? Marijuana Vs Hemp
Marijuana and hemp both come from the plant Cannabis sativa (though marijuana also comes from an additional member of the Cannabis family members, Cannabis indica).
The cannabis plant has more than 60 chemicals known as cannabinoids. The two primary types of cannabinoids are cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). CBDs are therapeutic cannabinoids, while THC is the cannabinoid that makes you high.
Marijuana’s THC content is usually in between ten and 15 percent but hemp should have a THC content of .3 percent or less. At this level, cannabis has no intoxicating impact, for individuals or dogs.
Hemp is higher in CBD, the substance that provides the therapeutic effects.
How CBD Hemp Can Help Your Dog
CBD hemp can help with each chronic and acute illness.
Among chronic conditions, it can help with arthritis, compromised immune systems, tension responses, aggression and digestive issues. There are also studies under way into CBD’s effects on Type 1 diabetes, organ illnesses and cancer.
Veterinarians are also finding CBD hemp can be helpful in treating acute ailments like sprains and strains, torn ligaments, bone breaks and even during post-operative care to decrease swelling, pain and stiffness.
If your dog’s taking standard drugs for any of these conditions, CBD hemp may make it possible to use lower doses of the drugs to achieve therapeutic effects. Since standard medicines do have side effects, this is a useful advantage of CBD.
