So I know of someone who is treating their dog’s bone cancer pain with some form of cannabis (i think oil) and getting a good reaponse. Got me wondering about how it might be used for horses…kissing spines in particular…just a brief hmmm anyone know of instances any form of cannabis was used to treat a horse?
No, but I bet it would think it would be a great alternative to other more chemical filled drugs! But I feel like even though the THC levels are really low to none, and I definetly if there is any THC it wouldn’t be enough to effect your horse at all, I feel like law enforcement would find it interesting that one person is buying that high of a dosage of cannabis oil, because I feel like a horse would need a lot more than a dog and I feel like it might be expensive I don’t think it would be I mean I don’t know if it would be covered by insurance. But I could be wrong I think it might be definitely worth looking into
I’ve heard of it being used in dogs with seemingly great success for palliative care, curious to see what others have to say about it. I’m sure someone, somewhere has tried this.
Do horses respond to cannabis the same way humans do? Do dogs?
I admit toying with the idea of giving it to a horse with glaucoma, but it is not legal here, and the legal meds are cheaper.
I have no idea about this, really, but I used to joke that my horse might be a good medical marijuana candidate. I do know that cannabis has been used for veterinary purposes in horses in many periods of history. The U.S. cavalry, in fact, recommended it for pain relief in the treatment of colic and laminitis in the beginning of the 20th century (see Belknap and Geor 2017 and references therein). It would seem, then, that horses do respond to it in some way that resembles the human response.
AVMA has been mum on it for a while, but there is an old article at https://www.avma.org/news/javmanews/pages/130615a.aspx
I do worry that the layperson experimentation is not the best way to explore this. What is a safe and effective dose for a horse? How does the composition of various cannabinoids in a particular strain or product impact that, and how carefully is this controlled in the products that are available to horse owners? Is there a level at which it becomes dangerous (here in CO, there’s been an uptick in veterinary cases of dogs with marijuana toxicity since legalization – how much of that is well-meaning owners with poor judgment and how much is naughty pups raiding an owner’s edibles stash is anyone’s guess…)?
As for glaucoma, as a human with dangerously high IOP I did some reading up on efficacy of marijuana for lowering IOP – you’d have to be high pretty much all the time for it to be effective. :eek: Can’t imagine how inefficient that would be for a horse!
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Yup, if smoked it lowers IOP for about 3 hours, there were no studies on oral intake, or for horses at all. We figured to do any good we’d have to just leave a bale of it in his stall and let him graze on it. :no:
Thinking good thoughts for your IOP x-halt-salute
Good question! I’ve been wondering about it for horses as well for pain management and also as an appetite stimulant.
Not a safe assumption. Remember Previcox/Equiox - a 57mg dose is standard for both dogs and horses, and dogs can even have a 227mg dose, which would be similar to 4gm bute. Dogs and horses don’t metabolize things the same way.
That said, in a quick search I didn’t find anything related to even trying it on horses, so who knows.
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Is the difference in metabolism related to carnivore vs grazing animals?
Really great points. I have strong objections to layperson experimentation of any prospective drug. If there are therapeutic benefits for horses I look forward to regulated and tested products being made available.
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In speaking with one of my vets yesterday, she said she is doing some research into systemic steroid use for horses like mine. I guess there has been some instances where a month’s treatment has helped a chronic pain type maintain for 6 months or more. But of course steroid use in horses has some scarier risks than for us or small animals.
I really wonder if something like cannabis could be a better alternative. And it is legal to buy here. Maybe the vet school should come up with a study protocol for us to try out. I mean, I’ve had people suggest putting essential oil diffusers by his stall and have considered various kinds of voodoo…he’s even had Reiki in the past. But with his um…strong… personality, it might not hurt for him to be a little stoned. Lol.
Whatever…still going to mask the symptoms and not solve the problems causing the chronic pain with things like kissing spines or an SI injury. It’s still a drug, still has side effects and effectiveness with painful or neurological conditions in an omnivorous species may not duplicate in an herbivore.
Jeeesh… I wouldn’t want to see some horses react as some people do, its not all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. I am a flower child from the west coast of the mid 60s, seen it all. Inhaled too only to quickly find I am allergic. No panacea there.
I agree it’s not a good thing to experiment with and could backfire badly.
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Of course it doesn’t cure the underlying disease, which is why it’s used for chronic pain management where there may not be anything you can do about the underlying disease. Like glaucoma and rheumatoid arthritis. It can help improve quality of life.
It does appear it used to be used as a colic remedy, so if it actually did anything that would suggest a pain relieving effect. I was not advocating randomly experimenting.
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I don’t think so…there are other drugs that horses metabolize like humans or dogs. Stuff like robaxin and many antibiotics, the horse takes a proportionally larger dose than a human. And there are certain antibiotics that cats can’t have at all but are fine for other species.
So i read just a few hemp oil directions/blurbs/descriptions on line…guess great fatty acids/in ratio and one thing that kept catching my eye is the how it was supposed to be good for nerve mylenation ie the cushy coating around the nerve…mmmm hmmmm take that pssm epsm!!! Not saying i know the first thing about it, but seems like could be worth some research by equine vets
Well for the horse treated with this particular medicinal herb it would open a treasure trove of new barn names…
Cheech
Chong
Dave (Dave’s not here)
Mary Jane
etc.
Hee hee.
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I think the issue is that it is still illegal in the eyes of the federal Government.
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It depends. Some hemp oil products with less than a certain concentration of THC can be sold as nutritional supplements or topicals in all states under local state laws and some exceptions under the Farm Bill. So, the hypothetical PSSM treatment product above may be different than a product that may be therapeutic for another issue, in the eyes of the federal government.
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I had a horse the midst of a deadly colic. I was literally waiting for the vet to come and put it down my mom stuff some cannabis down it. The horse never went down again and he is okay and doing well to this day. No idea if that helped but The pain did seem to subside after the canibus.
But that hemp is so weak, (most in the USA is from specially bred low THC high CBD strains) will it do anything? :no:
You have to remember you are reading about hemp/cannabis it’s mostly advertising not scientific literature.
