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Cannabis and Canines How Cannabidiol Benefits Dogs by Caroline Coile
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truck with severe arthritis, Topper, a 7-year-old Ibizan Hound, was in such pain he could hardly walk. He had to be carried outside to eat or use the bathroom, and medication wasn’t working. On a friend’s recommendation, his owner, Christy Moore, of Florence, Arizona, gave him cannabidiol (CBD). “Within three days, he could walk on all four legs and I was crying tears of joy,” she recalls. “It was the miracle we needed.” Topper is among the thousands of furry family members that have found relief with CBD, one of 113 cannabinoids found in cannabis (hemp) plants. Success stories abound of how CBD has helped dogs overcome anxiety, reduce seizures and even beat cancer. Cannabinoids, including CBD and the
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psychoactive compound THC, are substances that mimic the naturally occurring chemicals produced in all vertebrates. Receptors for these endocannabinoids are found throughout the body, especially in the brain, nervous system and immune system, as well as the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, intestinal tract, muscles, bones and both the reproductive and circulatory systems. They act as master regulators that signal other systems when to speed up or slow down, working to stabilize the body and return it to homeostasis. Cannabinoids from the cannabis plant affect these same receptors, each in slightly different ways. Unlike THC, which is toxic for dogs at prescribed human dosages, the most significant, documented side effects of CBD
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are diarrhea and changes in some liver enzyme values after several weeks. The main concern with CBD is that it inhibits cytochrome P450, a chemical in the body responsible for metabolizing most drugs. That means CBD could affect the effective potency of a prescribed drug.
What Research Shows While thousands of reports on CBD’s effect on laboratory animals and humans have been published, only a few have been conducted with dogs or cats. Still, CBD seems promising for arthritis, anxiety, itchiness and possibly seizures, cancer and other maladies. ARTHRITIS: In a Cornell University
