(Entertainment-NewsWire.com, November 13, 2012 ) Qld, U.K -- CBS4 reports that, as of recent, Colorado veterinarians are seeing an increase in dogs being treated for being high on marijuana. According to this new report out of Colorado, more dogs in the state are being brought into veterinarians’ clinics, high on marijuana. This means that dogs are finding stashes, finding and eating old roaches, eating marijuana edibles or inhaling second-hand marijuana smoke.
Dr. Stacy Meola, a veterinarian in Wheat Ridge who helped put together the study, states that the number of dogs that fall ill to marijuana has quadrupled in Colorados since medical marijuana became legalized. She told CBS4, “ I just want dogs, kids to be safe. It needs to be treated like any other drug. If you came home with a prescription of vicodin from your doctor you wouldn’t just leave it sitting there.”
However, dogs getting high in Colorado is nothing new. In 2011, the Durango Herald spoke with Jennifer Schoedler, a veterinarian at Alpine Animal Hospital. She stated that she has consistently treated dogs sick from ingesting marijuana since the 1990s. Schoedler told the Herald,"Dogs love the stuff. . . I've seen them eat the buds, plants, joints and marijuana in food." She added that just as dark chocolate is safe for humans to ingest but potentially poisonous to dogs, the same goes for marijuana for dogs. Still, marijuana ingestion is very rarely fatal to a dog and most are back to normal within 24 hours.
According to Jennifer Bolser of the Humane Society of Boulder Valley, dogs do not get "high" in the same way that humans do. This past April, she noted to The Daily Camera, “No. Marijuana exposure in pets causes neurologic toxicity, which is not the same as the ‘high’ that people experience. The symptoms (staggering, agitation, stupor, etc.) that develop in pets do not appear enjoyable for them.” Rather, for animals, marijuana acts as a toxin, and a pet owner should seek medical attention from a veterinarian if their pet accidentally ingests marijuana.
It turns out that marijuana intoxication in pets is common in other places. For example, San Francisco veterinarian Eric Barchas has an entire page on his website about pets accidentally getting high. On his website, Barchas writes that although pets exposed to marijuana are frequently disoriented and display anxiety and lack of coordination, “serious long-term health consequences and fatality from marijuana intoxication are essentially unheard of.”
If your pet has red eyes, poor motor function, an irregular heartbeat, he or she might have ingested marijuana and needs to treated by a veterinarian. Cannabis poisoning in a pet is easily treatable with a highly absorbent charcoal solution taken orally every four to six hours. Pets also need to be properly hydrated with water.
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