As the San Francisco Chronicle recently observed, medicinal cannabis isn’t only making human’s lives easier, it’s also working wonders for dogs suffering from conditions like arthritis.
One such dog benefiting from cannabis treatments is Suzanne Kisting’s St. Bernard. The 120-pound 10-year-old pooch, Moose (aptly named), suffers from severe arthritis. Moose was previously on expensive prescription drugs and undergoing doggy acupuncture — none of which helped. Then his owner decided to try cannabis oil.
Moose has been receiving two 1-milliliter CBD oil doses daily for three months and Kisting says he’s acting like a puppy again. Additionally, CBD oil treatments are vastly cheaper than prescription drugs, running Kisting about $45 for two weeks.
“There were times when I considered having to put him down,” Kisting said. “But cognitively he is still with it and happy. So I just kept trying different things.”
Like the early days of using medicinal cannabis, the jury is still out on this approach and pet owners employing it are facing criticism from various sources, including the American Veterinary Medical Association and even the FDA, despite positive results…
Cannabis oil tinctures for pets are gaining popularity as the effort to make marijuana fully legal throughout California continues. Using tinctures for pets, however, is a gray area say veterinarians. There’s no statistics on how many cats and dogs have been treated with cannabis oil in California.
“At this point, the ASPCA does not support using marijuana in pets for pain control,” Tina Wismer, medical director for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said in a statement. “There have been no scientifically accepted studies comparing marijuana products to known pain control medications.”
Nevertheless, there have been at least two start-up businesses to open in the last year with hundreds of return customers. These animals are being given cannabis oil to treat everything from cancer to pain management.
For pet owners like Suzanne Kisting and her beloved dog Moose, medicinal cannabis has been something of a godsend.