CAN CANNABIS
CURE ANIMALS?
In Remembrance of “Joshie”
The first thing we must
realize when thinking of our beloved fur kids or any animals is that all living
creatures including the jelly fish has an Endocannabinoid system (EC System),
except for certain types of insects, and this means that animals like humans
are supposed to consume Cannabinoids from the Cannabis plant in order to
sustain optimum health. Animals are therefore affected in the same physical and
physiological ways as humans. For this reason you may be guaranteed of the
future of Cannabis medicine for animals. Scientists have always been studying
Cannabis medicine using animals as their subjects and to this day no animal has
ever died or overdosed from whole herbal plant medicine.
How does Cannabis affect
animals?
In my years of healing humans and animals, ii can
honestly say that the medicine works exactly the same way on animals as humans.
It does present that since animals are generally smaller than humans, Cannabis
is likely to be much more potent to them. This means that animals require much
smaller doses because we have noted that the healing effects of Cannabis
medicine in animals do occur at much smaller doses. Except for the cat of
course ii have noticed that because they have larger pineal glands they tend to
require higher THC levels when there is illness or injury.
It can appear disastrous when a domestic pet gets into
your stash and often consumes an entire bank bag which is way too much for cats
and dogs indeed. There are many studies indicating that dogs can be exposed to
high amounts of THC without fatality so the risk of overdose in animals is
almost as rare as in humans. People need to be aware that as Cannabis laws
begin to relax there has been a notable increase of admission of dogs for accidental
Cannabis ingestion and sometimes this is a veterinarian's first experience with
Cannabis. Such sad reflection of human responsibility must not be confused with
any side effects of Cannabis.
Animals need Cannabis as much as
humans do...
There are literally thousands of stories available on
line of all kinds of animals being medicated with Cannabis by their humans.
This is mostly because it is not possible to open dialogue with a lot of
veterinarians due to the alleged lack of scientific evidence and training. Even
in the US where certain states have ‘legalized’ for medicinal reasons, sadly
veterinarians are not included in these announcements. They are simply not
empowered to prescribe Cannabis to any animals at this stage. Despite the fact
that human trials are going ahead in the Cannabis field it does seem as though
veterinarians are sitting on the side lines on this issue. This seems strange
to me since most Cannabis testing is done on animals.
You will also find lots of stories about companion
animals especially cats and dogs and some breeds of birds actually displaying
behaviour similar to begging to partake in their owners puffing experience.
This ii have personally seen both in my own animals (cats and dogs) as well as
those of friends and patients where the animal will quite literally sit at
their owners feet pleading until the human blows a few puffs into the animals
face. Cats of course are far more persistent and end up climbing all over you
till you end up having to relocate so in a lot of ways ii have seen how cats
feel the same about Cannabis as they do for Catnip. Again it is my belief that
this is because cats have larger pineal glands than most domestic animals and
need higher doses. And ii have heard stories of birds persistently calling
their owners to their cages and also stories of birds including chickens coming
to ‘beg’ for Cannabis. All of this proves that animals also have a fully
functional EC system which requires Cannabinoids from the Cannabis plant to
ensure optimum health. If you study animals long enough especially cats and
dogs you may see that they seem to seek out ways to 'get high'. For example
dogs like to eat rotten fruit which makes them drunk. After consuming Cannabis most
cats and dogs will simply go off and eat or go to sleep and ii have noticed the
bigger the animal the longer it sleeps.
In
the years ii spent in the rural Transkei ii spent a lot of time working with
cows, goats sheep, pigs, donkeys as well as horses and chickens and ii can tell
you that all of these breeds displayed favour for Cannabis. In fact ii also
spent a lot of time constantly fixing fences as these animals would put a
lot of effort into breaking into the ganja gardens. Believe me the immense
force of a determined cow is only over shadowed by the sheer cheek of a herd of
goats. So ii do believe that since all animals have an EC system they also have
a natural affinity and need to consume Cannabis. During my time in the rural
ii was blessed to work with a few veterinarians who were open-minded to
the healing benefits of Cannabis. They allowed me to administer my medicinal oil
to treat a variety of conditions like wounds, arthritis, mange, eye and ear
infections and old age issues with positive results.
How can Cannabis Help Animals?
Animals may enjoy relief from a number of medical
disorders like pain, inflammation, nausea, loss of appetite, lethargy,
depression, arthritis, joint and ligament problems, epilepsy, cancer, liver and
pancreatic disease, renal and digestive problems, bone disorders as well as
wounds.
What is the
correct dose?
Before prohibition in 1937 Cannabis was a common ingredient in a variety of
veterinary preparations as was the case with medicine for humans. Still the
veterinary community emphasize that due to lack of research appropriate
Cannabis dosages for animals remains unknown. In order for a human to overdose
on Cannabis they would need to consume their entire body weight in a 24 hour
period, which is impossible, however, as mentioned earlier with animals it
takes a lot less Cannabis to create the same effects as in humans.
Who was Dr Douglas
Kramer?
Before his untimely
death on 22 August 2013 Dr Douglas Kramer, dubbed the “Vet Guru” was an
aggressively active advocate for Cannabis Medicine for animals. He endorsed a
widespread acceptance and legalization of Cannabis for veterinary purposes. He
was also a grower of selected strains for his personal research.
“Any animal that has the Cannabinoid receptors would respond [to
THC] in the same way we do,” he stated, noting that
delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, one of the primary active ingredients in medical
Cannabis, helps alleviate chronic pain, reduce nausea, spur appetite and in
many ways improve quality of life for mammals, including humans. “There are
studies out there that show that pigs, chickens, monkeys and rats all have
those same receptors.”
“A glycerine tincture is, to me, by far the optimal way to
administer it because it offers the greatest accuracy in dosing,” he said. “It’s
also sweet tasting. Obviously you make it into butter or oil, so anything that
you can cook or make with butter or oil would work, like homemade dog biscuits.”
Between 2011 and 2013, some 300 people had
told Dr. Douglas Kramer about having experimented with Cannabis Medicine for a
pet. Prior to that, Dr. Kramer had worked at a small animal practice in
California, where clients would occasionally admit to giving Cannabis to an
animal companion for a medical reason.
“My position is
the same as the (American Medical Association’s). We need to investigate
Cannabis further to determine whether the case reports I’m hearing are true or
whether there’s a placebo effect at work and we need to know what the risks are”.
Dr. Kramer sympathized with veterinarians
who were cautious of openly considering the potential of Cannabis Medicine as a
veterinary drug. Since it was still illegal for veterinarians to prescribe or
even recommend Cannabis as a treatment for animals, it must of frustrated him
that his colleagues were not playing a more active role to facilitate research
in a field with very real and potential benefits for animal welfare.
“I agree that there should be studies but at the same time, I don’t
think animals should have to wait years for treatment, for relief from pain
and/or nausea.”
Dr. Kramer quickly learned that the therapy could be applied to
all sorts of medical conditions, and that it worked safely without causing
harmful side effects. As a result, he became somewhat of an outcast within his
profession, at least initially, as he began to treat more and more pets with
Cannabis Medicine.
Over the past few years there have been many stories about
conventional and holistic doctors who became advocates for Cannabis Medicine
and then mysteriously died or ‘’committed suicide” so for me personally
something does not make sense about a healthy 36 year doctor who knew the cure
for cancer for humans and animals. And who went up against the system to fight
for animal rights, suddenly dying of cancer or so it is alleged. The reporter
for AOL.com that August day claimed that he was unable to find any information
on the cause of Dr Kramer’s death as his obituary did not say anything but
there was a request that donations be made to a certain cancer organization. This
fuelled the rumour that he had died of cancer which ii will never believe.
More and more veterinarians around the world
are starting to see a marked increase in the interest of their patient’s owners
in Cannabis Medicine and many say that over the past two years requests have
increased from generally once a year to now up to once a week, so it seems
pretty certain that veterinarians will learn about Cannabis Medicine from the
human owners of their patients.
Today most
veterinarians agree that there is more than enough science to explain how the
EC system works and that the therapeutic benefits for animals simply cannot be
ignored.
Animal owners have the right to speak out
for their animals and to explore alternative treatments to ease pain and
suffering, and ii do believe that our animals depend on us for this. So rather
than just sit waiting for animal age-related disease to happen we should rather
try to prevent it and the best way to do this is with Cannabis medicine.
SOURCES:
Journal of the
American Veterinary Medical Association
Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care
American Medical Association
American Public Health Association
Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine - Dr
Dawn Booth Clinical Pharmacology Laboratory Director
National Geographic
Mercola.com
US Journal of Clinical Pediatrics
The Journal of Comparative Neurology
National Poison Data System US
Xhosastyles.blogspot.com
The Journal of Comparative Neurology
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