Pot for pets? What happened when terminally-ill Muttley took cannabis oil

[Boronia]

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http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/could-cannabis-oil-work-for-pets/8638256

Pot for pets? What happened when terminally-ill Muttley took cannabis oil

Posted Wed 21 Jun 2017, 12:14pm

Updated Thu 22 Jun 2017, 6:20pm

By Shalailah Medhora

 

 

 

He'd been diagnosed with cancer earlier that year, and after rounds of chemo and five surgeries, the vet said there was nothing more they could do for him.

"He was extremely lethargic. He'd sleep 20, 22 hours a day and wanted to be left alone, didn't want to go outside. Basically, getting towards the point of he was going to die," Tim told Hack.

"In October we said goodbye to him. We were going away and we didn't think he'd survive the week," Tina said. "The only other option would have been putting him down, because he didn't have any quality of life."
Chemo was having a terrible effect on Muttley.

"He got really sick, he lost ten kilos and started urinating blood and the vet said that's pretty much it. He probably has weeks to live, if he's lucky," Tim said.

To ease Muttley's discomfort, the vet suggested Tim and Tina try something a little bit controversial - medicinal cannabis oil.

The couple was sceptical at first.

I thought I'd heard it all, until I'd heard that."

"But then I thought, if he can't take traditional medicine, if it makes him feel sick - he was vomiting and he would do this really sad thing where he would bury his nose in his paws and rub his head in the grass," Tina said.

"You could tell he was really in pain and that was a sign that he was nauseous. So I thought, what do we have to lose? We might as well try it."

They got him some low-dose cannabis oil... and noticed a change within days.

"He's put ten kilos back on, he's pain-free, he's hyperactive, he's energetic, he's loving life, and he has a huge appetite," Tim said.

In some ways, Muttley's turned into a typical stoner.

I guess he gets the dog munchies."

"He does tend to get the munchies, even after his second dinner. He follows me to the fridge and he absolutely loves ice-cream," Tim said.

"For some reason, this is a new taste he's developed after we've given him the hemp oil. He absolutely devours an entire bowl of ice-cream."

"After taking medicinal marijuana, he wants to be around everybody, he wants to play, and sometimes at midnight he gets his toys and he wants to play with his toys even though everybody else wants to go to bed," Tim laughed.

'For use in humans only'

The thing is, no cannabis products have been approved for use in animals. In fact, the Therapeutic Goods Administration - the regulatory body responsible for giving medicines for humans a tick or a flick - actively warns against cannabis use in pets.

"Some substances that are relatively benign in humans can be highly toxic to dogs and/or cats," a spokeswoman for the TGA told Hack.

"Cannabis cultivated and manufactured into medicinal cannabis products is for use in humans only. It should not be provided to pets."

Pet owners may be tempted to provide black market medicinal cannabis products to pets. This should never be done."

 

 

But veterinarians have the discretion to prescribe human medicines to pets, if they think it'll help, and certain very-low dose hemp oils, like the ones you may see at market stalls, can legally be sold in Australia.

"The reason they're legal is that they have such a low concentration to be legal so they can't be abused. They may well be safe, but we also don't know that they're effective," practicing vet and member of the Australian Veterinary Association, Phil Brain, said.

He cautioned pet owners against seeing medicinal cannabis as the silver bullet for their sick pets.

"There are many more conventional products that can be used to improve well-being and appetite," he told Hack.

"The AVA remains open to the possibility of these drugs, we welcome further research. It's probably just at this time, the unquestioning acceptance of the products is premature."

Phil said he's much more likely to see pets get sick from accidentally accessing their owner's stash.

"They come in with quite profound signs of toxicity, ranging from being spaced out, but often including seizuring, they're wobbly and they're quite neurologically affected.

In some cases that toxicity can be fatal."

He says the same kind of medicinal cannabis trials that have been conducted on humans should be done on animals.

"We keep an open mind I suppose, but veterinary science is a science and accordingly the AVA are advocates for only using products that have been thoroughly tested," Phil said.

Aussie company taking Europe by storm

Could we see approved cannabis-based product for pets on the Australian market soon?

It's not a medication, but Australian-listed company, Creso Pharma, has registered a hemp-based product that you can feed your pets to help them with chronic stress and ageing. That's been registered through the European Union's regulatory body, called the European Feed Material Registry.

"The European regulations are a bit more open, so we're starting in Europe," David Russell from Creso Pharma told Hack.

Next step: getting the product into Australia on a trial basis.

"That's probably the first path for us, to get some product into the country through a TGA approval for research purposes so they can have some experience with it," David said.

Cannabis is a good option [for pets], but we need to gather some local evidence."

David admitted Australia had been slow off the mark when it comes to utilising medicinal cannabis, but he said it's "for the right reasons".

"There are about 5 million dogs - that's about 40 per cent of households in Australia - and they're part of the family. They're a very important part of people's lives, and we want to make sure we give them something safe," he said.

The product will launch in Europe later this year, and there's still a question mark over when we could see it in Australia.

A last resort

Tim and Tina didn't regret their decision for a second.

Muttley is a much-loved member of the family, and his human parents would do anything to make his last days bearable.

You would do that for anyone, you'd try and make them comfortable."

"I mean, his prognosis is terminal and all it's done is make him comfortable for however long he's got to live," Tina said.

Tim agreed.

"I just think, give it a go if there's no other option."

Phil's approach was a bit more cautious.

"I would say to those pet owners to see the veterinarian and have a long chat about conventional medication, discuss using alternative medication as an option."

Credits

• Author Shalailah Medhora

Edited June 22, 2017 by Boronia

[Loving my Oldies]

I was thinking about cannabis oil for dogs only yesterday, because I saw on ABC TV that a forum was being held in Melbourne to teach doctors et al more about cannabis;  the fellow who’d organised the forum was being interviewed.  

 

Considering the TGA approves millions of alternative meds which have been proven ad nauseam to have no benefits at all, why cannabis derivatives which have been proven again and again to have changed people’s lives to extraordinary degrees, hasn’t approved is beyond me.  Apart from the fact that it has been stated again and again that the “high” qualities of cannabis are not in the plant used for medicinal purposes, what on earth does it matter if someone who is in chronic unresolvable pain or having 20 plus fits a day gets a bit of a high?  

 

Ever the cynic, I cannot help but wonder how much the TGA is in the grip of big pharma.  One little bit of healing oil taking the place of millions of useless pills and potions?  Not while big pharma is in charge !!

[Tassie]

From what I read in an orthopaedic group, medicinal cannabis oil (low or negligible THC)  is fairly readily available legally for use in dogs in a number of states in the US.   People who are using it are finding it useful for pain relief with few complications, and without the same GI negative effects of several of the usual pain relief meds .. particularly beneficial for long term recovery type orthopaedic surgeries.

[Loving my Oldies]

Australia is really lagging behind other countries in terms of adoption of technologies (except those that enable us to bury our heads in mediocrity - phones, games, etc).  Yet we have scientists and inventors who are nothing short of brilliant and world leaders.  So hard to understand.   

[karen15]

I honestly don't know what the difference is between medical and drug abuse cannabis. However, the links between the second and mental illness cannot be ignored. Maybe medical professionals feel they don't know enough about that correlation to suggest medical cannabis is safe for use. After all, in centuries past things like mercury, arsenic etc were seen as harmless treatments.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

I'd be worried about this given a few years ago a number of dogs found something at one of our local ovals that was suspected to be pot - and they nearly died.

I'd definitely want to know it was not one of the drugs that humans can survive but kills dogs. 

[Scrappi&Monty]

Hmm. Not sure how I feel about that. Great that he's feeling better, but before that tbh I think it was cruel to keep him around in pain just sleeping most of the day away.  I've been keeping updated about a foster puppy on Instagram, he was dumped after he got into his owner's stash of cannabis when he was only a few weeks old and got poisoned.  Now he will suffer seizures for the rest of his life unless they figure out the correct medicine dosage.  (I saw someone in the comments suggest cannabis oil.... that's what made him sick in the first place ) 

[Tassie]

On ‎23‎/‎06‎/‎2017 at 8:59 PM, Mrs Rusty Bucket said:

I'd be worried about this given a few years ago a number of dogs found something at one of our local ovals that was suspected to be pot - and they nearly died.

I'd definitely want to know it was not one of the drugs that humans can survive but kills dogs. 

My understanding is that the medicinal cannabis oil comes from varieties of hemp which have little or no THC (tetrahydracannabinol) which is the main psycho-active chemical sought after in illegal 'pot'.  The illegal growers select for high THC, the legal and would be legal hemp growers select for low or THC.   We are just now getting round to legalising medicinal cannabis products for humans, although at the moment, in Tasmania at least, they can only be prescribed by specialist neurologists - which is a bit of a problem in a state with waiting lists to see neuro specialists of over 12 months .