Various cannabinoids including cannabidiol have significant effects on the health of human beings as well as on animals. As research on CBD oil persists to emerge, pet owners are exploring the fact that medical cannabis can impart beneficial effects for dogs.
Usually, pet owners feel devastated when they see their dogs suffering from any health problems like anxiety, pain, or seizures.
However, CBD containing anti-seizure, anti-inflammatory, anxiolytic, and anti-psychoactive properties, has been proved useful for treating various health conditions and maintaining the health of animals.
Thus, pet owners are increasingly considering CBD oil for dogs with high levels of anxiety or have seizures.
In spite of the fact that there are numerous medicines available in the market that can be used for treating seizures or any other health problem, they cause multiple adverse side effects.
However, one drug, in particular, that is discovered proficient by many veterinarians is cannabidiol. Administering CBD oil to your dog is a perfect remedy because it is 100% natural and healthy.
Also, it is free of chemicals and other injurious substances. This means that CBD oil could treat your pet, avoiding the use of harmful drugs.
Benefits Of Cannabis Oil For Dogs
You should consider CBD oil while creating a daily wellness regimen for your dog’s behavior training and a proper healthy diet.
Several studies reported that CBD oil for dog significantly reduces pain and prevent inflammation and swelling.
It makes the dog feel incredibly relaxed, lessens anxiety issues, and helps in improving the quality of sleep. CBD oil extracted from hemp has numerous positive effects on the dog’s health.
- It treats epilepsy and seizures and reduces the frequency of them. It reduces the activity of neurons and attacks free radicals preventing anxiety attacks and seizures.
- CBD oil is a pain reliever causes a reduction in pain by targeting specific aching joints and relieving pain. Also, it prevents chronic inflammation in dogs suffering from arthritis and helps them in proper healing.
- Don’t worry when your dog refuses to eat and loses its appetite because CBD oil helps in improving taste and alleviates all the digestive issues.
- Many dogs suffer depression and anxiety that leads to destructive behaviors like pacing and urinating anywhere. Anyhow, CBD oil is a relaxing stimulant and helps in relieving stress and calming your pet.
- It helps in reducing cancer symptoms in dogs by its anti-tumor properties. CBD oil kills the cancer cells in association with the immune system and blocks their activity, invasion, and spread.
- Long-term use of CBD oil helps in enhancing the systemic balance and reducing stress.
- Overall it helps in treating various cardiovascular, neurogenerative, inflammatory bowel, and autoimmune diseases.
Types Of Dog Seizures And Epilepsy And Its Causes
If you notice your dog being confused or nervous and behaving strangely, then your dog is probably suffering from seizures. Another name used for it is epilepsy.
Involuntary electrical activity in the brain of your dog causes seizures or uncontrollable shaking that last for several minutes.
Various causes result in seizures such as deficiency of few electrolytes, kidney problems, liver diseases, abnormal blood sugar levels, physical trauma, genetic abnormality, any head injury, intake of poison, anemia, potential strokes, encephalitis, diabetes or brain cancer.
Sometimes seizures may occur for some unknown causes and thus called idiopathic seizures.
Researchers classified seizures into the following major types.
Generalized Or Grand Mal seizures
A generalized seizure is the most common type. It affects the entire body of the dog as well as both sides of the brain.
The electrical activity of the neurons gets altered present throughout the brain and results in loss of consciousness. Generalized seizures look like involuntary shaking in all the limbs.
Focal Seizures
In focal seizures, the abnormal electrical activity of neurons occur in only one part of the brain but later progress throughout the life of the dog.
Focal or partial seizures cause abnormal movements in only one side of the body or limb, or just the face gets affected. It only lasts for a few seconds.
Idiopathic Epilepsy
These seizures occur due to some unknown cause. They usually develop in dogs between the age of 6 months to 6 years.
Idiopathic epilepsy does not affect the brain and most commonly occurs in beagles, Australian shepherds, German shepherds, collies, Labrador retrievers, and Belgian Tervurens.
Psychomotor Seizure
A psychomotor seizure is associated with a specific strange behavior that lasts for a few minutes. Differentiating between an odd expression and a psychomotor seizure is difficult.
Usually, a dog having a psychomotor seizure starts chasing its tail or any imaginary object and always act the same every time it undergoes a seizure.
CBD Oil For Dog Seizures – How It Works?
Just like humans, practically all animals possess an endogenous cannabinoid system in their bodies. This endocannabinoid system plays a vital role in maintaining emotional balance and health, enhancing the healing process, and regulating the immune system.
The ECS consists of endocannabinoids that act on the neuroreceptors that control the production of several proteins and hormones.
CBD oil performs its function by targeting its corresponding receptors located in various organs, brain, immune cells, and central nervous system that assists in stimulating the relaxing effects.
CBD oil for dogs has proven to be as efficient as the traditional medical treatment for treating certain types of seizures.
Few studies attributed that CBD oil for dogs has been proved to reduce the inflammation associated with the seizures and regulates the neuronal activity.
The exact biological mechanism by which CBD oil helps in preventing seizures is still unknown; however, it works better than all the standard therapies used for seizures.
Just because CBD oil is a non-psychoactive stimulus, it provides calming sensations to your dog and efficiently helps in relieving pain without producing any potential intoxicating effects.
The production of free radicals in the body generates oxidative stress and damage the dog’s nervous system.
The CBD oil for dogs attacks the free radicals through its antioxidant property and serves as a natural remedy for treating dog’s seizures. Thus, an accurate CBD dosage for a dog is one of the potent treatments available.
CBD Oil For Dog Seizures – What Research Says?
Most of the research performed to discover the effects of CBD oil on epilepsy or seizures have been conducted either on humans or lab animals such as cats and dogs.
Also, dogs possess an endocannabinoid system similar to the human, meaning they counter to cannabinoids in the same way as humans.
Thus, CBD is considered as a well-tolerated supplement for dogs as it helps in treating seizures and is completely non-toxic.
The American Epilepsy Society published a study confirming that CBD oil is effective in treating seizures. They tested the potency, safety, and efficacy of CBD oil on young adults and children suffering from severe types of epilepsy. The study found out that CBD reduces the frequency of these seizures by 45%. This study supported much research on animals and prior reports presenting that CBD can be a promising treatment for seizures.
Another study that was published in 2016, in a highly valued, peer-reviewed medical journal named The Lancet Neurology showed that CBD oil efficiently reduces the seizure attacks by an average of 36%.
They examined around 210 patients who had epilepsy for almost twelve weeks and treated them with 99% natural CBD extract. Also, they reported that nearly 2% of their patients got rid of their seizures entirely with the following treatment.
What Is The Accurate Dosage Of CBD Oil For Dogs?
To determine the perfect dosage of CBD oil for dogs, make sure to look for some factors that include your dog’s breed, its health condition, history of the disease, weight or size of your dog, CBD oil concentration, delivery mechanism, and variances in the metabolism of your dog.
Starting with a lower dosage of CBD oil for dogs and increasing it gradually up to the required daily dose is an optimum measure. Notice the effects and adjust the amount of CBD oil accordingly. Ideally, the starting dosage of CBD oil for dogs should be as low as 0.05 mg of CBD/kg of your dog’s body weight.
Administer three small doses of CBD to your dog over the course of the day instead of giving one significant dosage of CBD. Dogs weight ranging between 25 to 35 kg requires a daily dose of 9mg of CBD oil whereas dogs weighing more than 35 kilograms need a regular dose of 15 mg.
CBD oil dose can be handled unconventionally for dogs as it has no severe side effects or overdose limit. It is essential to monitor your dog’s health and behavior. Increase the CBD oil dose by 5 mg every four to five days if you observe no improvement.
Administer 15mg of CBD oil daily from day 1 to 4. From day 5, increase it to 25 mg and ultimately after day 10, raise it over 35 mg if necessary. The overall period required for seizure treatment is 90 days.
Continue monitoring your dog’s health and its symptoms and when you observe the signs are gone, keep on administering the same CBD dose for two more weeks for concluding the treatment correctly.
How To Administer CBD Oil To The Dogs?
There are various ways of administering CBD oil to your dog. Administer it sublingually under its tongue if you are not scared of its teeth. However, if your dog is not that trained, then you can apply a few drops of CBD oil on your hand and let the dog lick it.
If you are unable to adopt any of these ways, then you can mix drops of CBD oil with your dog’s food or give it by mixing in drinking water.
The best way of administering CBD oil to your dog is a sublingual application because it allows the cannabinoids and terpenes to come in close contact with the blood tissues present in the mouth. This method helps in absorbing CBD directly into the bloodstream.
The sublingual application delivers the therapeutic effects of CBD oil rapidly within 30 seconds to two minutes. Also, it is possible that 30 to 60% of your CBD oil dosage gets vanished due to the lower bioavailability in the digestive tract and the acidic stomach acids.
Sublingual application using a dropper is the most accessible method to adopt because it helps in measuring the dose of CBD oil for dogs accurately.
Potential Risks Of CBD Oil On Dogs
Every other supplement has some side effects while medical cannabis for dogs is okay. High-quality CBD oil for dogs contains zero-level or only trace amounts of THC, which is what makes your dog feels high.
Therefore, the most severe potential risk associated with CBD oil might be lethargy or drowsiness. Also, excess consumption of CBD oil has no long-term side effects.
CBD containing high THC strains can cause severe side effects or static ataxia in dogs, for this reason, CBD oil with THC is firmly rejected by multiple veterinarians.
CBD oil is a non-toxic and non-psychoactive supplement that has beneficial effects on the dog’s health. It does not interact with any other supplement or medication thus considered safe and efficient for treating various medical conditions in dogs.
Full-spectrum CBD often contains terpenes that efficiently amplify the positive effects of CBD oil on dogs.
The most common potential risks associated with the non-psychoactive CBD oil include drooling, vomiting, dizziness, lethargy, unusual behavior, agitation, and depression.
Best CBD Oil For Dogs
Make sure to start your dog’s CBD treatment with high quality and lab-tested CBD oil to avoid any potential risks and achieving the best results.
Also, visit your veterinarian and ask him to prescribe you the best CBD oil. However, just to make it easy for you, here is a list of some of the highest quality CBD oil available in the market.
1. Get CBDPet – http://www.getcbdpet.com/
Get CBDPet developed its CBD oil products for those who want to maximize their health and treat various diseases without any compromise. They provide natural and organic oil containing terpenes and other cannabinoids.
All of their products are quality tested and without any pesticides or chemicals. They further offer a 90-day money-back guarantee because customer satisfaction is their top priority.
2. fxCBD
They are one of the best sellers of the CBD oil. They extract CBD oil from the highest quality hemp plants. Their initial aim is to provide the purest and cleanest CBD oil to their customers.
They mix CBD oil with amino acids, minerals, vitamins, and fatty acids, hence making it beneficial for both animals and humans.
It is free from all the chemicals and pesticides. It is entirely certified and is best for your pet because it provides all the health benefits that your dog deserves.
3. PurCBD
CBD tinctures for dogs from PurCBD are advantageous because their CBD oil is also full-spectrum and completely natural.
It is considered to be one of the best CBD oil by many veterinarians in the medical community as it is non-psychoactive and free of chemicals.
Also, their CBD oil is available at affordable prices. Their products get checked regularly after every extraction process for its potency, quality, cleanliness, and safety.
4. Verified Dog Treats of CBD
Many veterinarians prescribe CBD oil from Verified CBD because of their high standards of production and quality check.
They produce the purest CBD oil available in the market because they implement the recent technologies and strictly follow the GMP manufacturing guidelines.
People love CBD oil from verified CBD because of their quality, value for money, and product innovation.
Also, their products get tested after every production by HPLC equipment for checking the presence of any pesticide or chemical, microbiological contamination, and detecting the terpene profile.