“When we first started talking about the idea
of using marijuana as a medicine, people
laughed about it,” she said. “But they’ve come
around, because when you know someone
who was helped by cannabis it’s not funny
anymore.”
In 2013, Reiman’s cat, Monkey, was
diagnosed with terminal intestinal cancer.
The chemotherapy and medication caused
Monkey to lose her appetite, not sleep and
become lethargic.
The situation reminded Reiman of the
countless scenarios she’d encountered with
humans after a decade of working in medical
marijuana, so she decided to mix a very small
amount of cannabis oil in Monkey’s food.
When it comes to pet meds, Wismer says it’s
not uncommon for a human medication to be
applied to animals purely on the basis of
anecdotal evidence.
She believes more studies need to be done on
the therapeutic use of cannabis on animals to
find the right dose.
Dr Sarah Brandon, a veterinarian and
cofounder of Canna Companion, a hemp-
based pet supplement company, says that over
the last 18 years, she has administered
cannabis to more than 4,000 animals, and is
currently analysing data before offering it to
the medical community.
“Right now, veterinarians have no guidance
on this,” she says. “There’s a lot of fear out
there, and they are scared to come out and
recommend [cannabis].
A veterinarian can recommend a hemp-based
product as a supplement, but they cannot
encourage them to use marijuana.”
“It brought her energy back, she was eating
and playing – she was actually acting
healthier than she had been before she was
diagnosed with cancer,” Reiman said. “I knew
it wasn’t a cure for her, and in the end she
passed away several months later.
But I really do feel it gave her a quality of life
at the end; instead of just fading away, she
stayed strong right up until the end.” Dan Goldfarb, owner of Seattle-based Canna-
Pet, describes the differences between hemp
and marijuana: “It’s like dog breeds: you can
have a chihuahua or a great Dane, both of
which are dogs but are bred to exude very
different characteristics.”
Canna-Pet, Treatibles and Canna Companion
are all strictly hemp-based, so they are
allowed to sell their products outside of
marijuana dispensaries – even online to states
where marijuana is illegal – without the need
of a prescription.
But there are a handful of companies who use
straight marijuana in their pet products, who
say that hemp is too limited.
Veterinarians caution against pet owners
taking matters into their own hands, because
finding the correct dose can be tricky.
While many pet medicines are just human
drugs in different doses, the weight ratios
between humans and animals can make it easy
to accidentally give your pet an overdose.
It gave her a quality of life at the end; instead
of just fading away, she stayed strong right up
until the end. “We’ve seen better results with a little THC,”
says Alison Ettel, founder of Treat Well, who
has been using cannabis on a variety of
animals for ten years and was recently invited
to treat seals at the Marine Animal Centre in
Sausalito, California.
She says that hemp works for some ailments
like anxiety, but doesn’t contain a number of
medicinal properties that marijuana does, like
appetite stimulation.