I
t all started on a Tuesday night, when I came home from work to an unmistakable absence. My brown-and-white pitbull mix Maizey wasn't at the top of the stairs to greet me. Instead she was in her bed, shaky and confused.
When I tried to get her up, she stumbled, nearly falling over while standing still. Walking to the vet, she leapt like a puppy chasing imaginary balls.
Later, at the 24-hour veterinary clinic, the staff ran some tests and determined Maizey was in no immediate danger.
Instead, they wagered a guess that Maizey was simply high. On marijuana.
How Are Dogs Getting High?
"Dogs will get into anything and everything," said veterinarian Dorrie Black of San Francisco-based veterinary clinic Animal Internal Medicine and Specialty Services.
Dr. Black said dogs ingest marijuana by eating the remainder of a joint, or getting into someone's edible marijuana, either at home, on the street or in parks.
Another unsavory source? Human feces tainted with marijuana. This is, in fact, what we think happened to Maizey, who spent quite a bit of time in the park bushes the morning she got stoned.
"Dogs love that scent, to them it’s perfume," said Dr. Black.
Dr. Black and other veterinarians believe this is becoming more common in the Bay Area, as more people are forced to live on the streets.
What Does a High Dog Look Like?
Veterinarian Benjamin A. Otten of allCREATURES Veterinary Clinic looks for these telltale symptoms when identifying "marijuana toxicity" in a dog:
- Wobbly movements, like a person who is drunk
- Dribbling urine
- Low temperature
- Nervousness
Dogs exhibit these symptoms because THC — the psychoactive component of marijuana — is poisonous to them. Despite that, none of the vets interviewed for this story has ever seen an animal die from marijuana toxicity.
"There's nothing about that actual drug itself that will kill them," Dr. Black said. "It doesn't cause any organ failure, it doesn't cause liver failure, renal failure."
What can happen, Black said, is that the drug can sedate a dog so fully that it will inhale its own vomit, which can be lethal. For that reason, Dr. Black cautions pet owners to play it safe.
"If you do not know the quantity that they got into, I'm always going to recommend that you go to your vet," she said.
Cannabidiol, or CBD, on the other hand, is actually marketed to pet owners for a variety of pet ailments. But the research is still incomplete about its efficacy for treating things like animal anxiety and seizures, and veterinarians are not allowed to recommend CBD to patients (although there is a bill making its way through California's Senate that could change that).
