Dogs and cannabis ingestion

Pet owners never expected their animals to be affected by the legalization of cannabis in Canada.

Many people do not properly discard their joint or cigarette butts in public areas. Instead, they are thrown on the ground. Although it may seem harmless, this poses a significant threat to pets who are frequently in those areas.

Marisa Lanoue took her Australian Shepard, Bella, for a walk around her neighbourhood in the fall of 2020. Hours later, Bella was not well.

“Bella is hyper, outgoing and a friendly dog,” said Lanoue. “A couple of hours after the walk, she started looking lethargic, shaking, couldn’t stand up well, and her eyes were not focusing.”

Lanoue took her dog to the emergency veterinarian clinic after she noticed a change in Bella’s behaviour. They ran a blood test and hooked Bella up to an intravenous drip. According to Bella’s symptoms, the vet determined she was high and could only be monitored and kept on an IV.

Lanoue brought Bella in for treatment at 6 p.m. and picked her up at 11 p.m. that night.

The vet told Lanoue if your dog ingests something, the first thing you should do is bring them in to get their stomach pumped. However, once symptoms begin, it is too late for that.

This is not the first time this has happened to her dog, according to Lanoue.

“The second time it happened, I made sure she was hydrated and put her in her crate for the night,” Lanoue said. “The vet said she just needs to sleep it off. So that’s what I did.”

Bella is not the only one who has experienced cannabis ingestion.

Sandra Mckee has experienced this three times with her four-month-old Australian Shepard, Holly. The first occurrence was on Jan. 27.

“My husband took her for a walk around 8:30, 9:00 p.m.,” said Mckee. “She started displaying symptoms around 10:30, 11:00 p.m.”

Mckee said right after they noticed her symptoms, they called the vet clinic and took her to the emergency clinic at 11:30 p.m.

Mckee said they waited in their vehicle while the vet did an initial assessment of their dog, who showed the typical symptoms of being high.

They got a call from the vet at 4 a.m. the next day, describing her condition. However, they wanted to keep their dog until later that afternoon so they could monitor her symptoms.

“Prevention is the best medicine,” Mckee said. “My husband takes a different route now because all three times it happened, it has been in our area. We are also very careful about not letting her pick up anything off the ground, but it’s harder at night.”

Both dogs have now recovered and are in good health.

Lanoue suggests other dog owners avoid traditional “smoking” areas when walking their dog and take their dog to the vet immediately if they think they may have ingested something.