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Pot and Your Pooch
Pubdate: Sun, 20 Nov 2005
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Jim Gibson, Times Colonist
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
POT AND YOUR POOCH
If Fido Is a Bit Too Mellow, He Might Be Nibbling on Someone's Drug
Stash
Dogs have been getting high on B.C. Bud for years, according to
several local veterinarians who have treated pets who have ingested
marijuana.
The number of pot pooches has not yet reached the point where some dog
barks sound suspiciously like "bow WOOOW!" or lava lamps are more
fascinating to them than chew toys.
At least, not yet in Victoria.
Veterinarian Shelley Breadner estimates she sees several a year, while
Nick Shaw doubts he's treated more than four or five stoned dogs in
more than two decades in practice.
It's a little different on the Lower Mainland, according to John
Brocklehouse, deputy registrar of the B.C. Veterinary Medicine
Association. He says one Lower Mainland emergency veterinary clinic
reports one to four cases a week. Occasionally even a cat, he adds.
However, there have been no cannabis-related deaths, says
Brocklehouse.
"They'd have to eat a helluva lot," says Shaw, speculating on what it
would take before a canine OD-ed on marijuana, but that could change
with any reconfiguration of street cannabis.
"I don't know what will happen if we see marijuana laced with crystal
meth," worries Shaw.
It's not just pot that should concern pet owners, but prescription
drugs legal or otherwise. Breadner has treated a dog who had ingested
a narcotic painkiller of a type popular on the street. It required
three-days-treatment in the clinic, including IVs, to counteract
significant liver and blood changes.
Pot ingesting pooches react somewhat the same way their pot-smoking
owners do, according to Breadner.
"Mostly they're stoned. They're zoned out, and don't respond to
anything," she says about dogs who have discovered someone's drugs.
But comparisons to their lovers-of-the-leaf owners stop there. "I
don't think they want to go down to the corner store for Pringles,"
quips Sharron Bartlett, veterinarian technician and office manager of
a Victoria clinic with 24-hour emergency pet service.
To make the diagnosis, veterinarians mostly rely on the owners to own
up, although sometimes marijuana is seen if vomiting is induced.
Most people will be forthright if their animal is at risk, says
Bartlett. Breadner's sole concern is the animal's health and not any
illegal drug possession. She says patient/doctor confidentiality
exists even at a vet clinic.
However, owners don't always connect their pup's sleepy behaviour with
marijuana. Victoria veterinarian Kam Brar once asked a couple if it
was possible their intoxicated-like dog had got into
"something."
"They looked at each other and said 'Omigawd!' " says Brar, who didn't
push them further.
Breadner has had cases where those presenting the dog to her were
unaware of cannabis even being their home. It then becomes a family
rather than a veterinary matter for them to later resolve.
Apparently a pooch's passion for pot is about as explicable as any
other canine craving. "Why do dogs eat knives, string? Some dogs will
eat anything," says Breadner. "They explore with their mouths."
Labrador retrievers are particularly prone to eating anything, says
Bartlett. "They're so curious and mouth-oriented because they're
retrievers."
Plastic pill bottles are no challenge to a chewing puppy. Stashing a
fragrant stash under a mattress or the back of a closet isn't good
enough, according to Breadner. A dog can sniff them out. Instead, she
recommends dog owners keep dangerous substances out of their pet's
reach in the same way they would childproof their homes.
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