Are you a big fan of having numerous marijuana edibles at your home? Do you always find it challenging to keep your pet away from these edibles? Cannabis or marijuana edibles are very common these days and can attract humans and pets. Dog owners are always concerned for their dogs for mistakenly eating marijuana edibles like gummies, brownies, or candies. Therefore, knowing what to do if your dog eats edibles is crucial, which we will discuss in this post.
Symptoms Of Marijuana Poisoning
Different strains and doses of marijuana can show different symptoms lasting from 2 to 24 hours. The most common signs of marijuana intoxication in your dog include the following:
- Sedation
- Tremors
- Tiredness
- Pupil dilation
- Higher stimulus sensitivity
- Seizures ad shocks
- Aggression
- Confusion
- Disturbed heart rate
- Crying sounds
- Nausea and vomiting
- More urine
- Abnormal body temperature
What to do if your dog eats edibles?
There is no immediate antidote available for marijuana intoxication. However, you can perform the following tasks to help your dog come back to a normal state:
- Instantly run to the nearest vet to get your dog treated accordingly.
- Maintain the body temperature and heartbeat of your dog.
- Use intravenous fluids to wash your dog’s body and keep it hydrated.
- To deal with the fluid loss and vomiting issue, start giving antiemetics as per the prescribed dose.
- Give activated charcoal to prevent the ongoing absorption and dissolution of marijuana.
- Keep an eye on your dog to avoid any personal attacks.
- Don’t panic; keep yourself calm, and learn how to keep your puppy calm.
Is Marijuana Harmful to Dogs?
The marijuana plant comprises around 100 different cannabinoids, some of which are toxic while some are not harmful. THC and CBD are the two active constituents of marijuana, present in dominant quantities. Among these two, THC is very toxic and causes instant psychotropic changes. On the other hand, CBD is not psychotropic and has no harmful effects.
There are different means by which marijuana can enter your dog’s body. The most common form is when your dog eats any marijuana edible present in the form of colorful gummies or delicious brownies.
Other than that, your dog can get marijuana intoxication by inhaling the smoke or ingesting the cannabinoids from cannabis oils or tinctures.
Marijuana intoxication is terrible for your dogs if they mainly consume the THC component. Even CBD can be harmful when ingested in large quantities. Many people see the symptoms of marijuana intoxication in their dogs at varying times. If your dog gets high within an hour, it must have taken marijuana edible with higher THC content. At the same time, the ones containing a significant portion of CBD might take several hours to show the results.
Cannabis Toxicity in Dogs: What to do?
Helping your little friend recover from the harmful effects of consuming edibles is easy. Don’t panic, as this situation is rarely the worst, and you usually can turn the whole game yourself without much effort. Consuming cannabis alone is not very harmful. However, if your dog eats cannabis with substances such as chocolate or xylitol, this is something to worry about.
You have to worry more when the marijuana edible has a high proportion of TCH. This THC gets into the dog’s fat cells and leads to effects lasting for multiple days. If you provide proper treatment to your dog, 1,2 days are enough to reverse the symptoms of marijuana ingestion. If your dog has consumed a very high dose, you might have to wait 72 hours to bring it back from a high state to the normal one.
In short, you can just say that the time of recovery for this condition depends highly on the marijuana strains and amount of cannabis ingested.
Another factor that affects the strength of marijuana consumption in your dog is its size. Small-sized dogs will have more prominent effects due to faster metabolism. At the same time, dogs with large body sizes slowly show symptoms.
How to Prevent Marijuana Intoxicity in Your Dog?
We all know that preventing something is always better than making an effort to treat it. Similar is the case with the intoxication of marijuana. Some simple ways to prevent marijuana ingestion by your dog are:
- Train your dogs to avoid strange things and not eat everything they see.
- If you are a marijuana lover, keep it hidden from your pets and children.
- Store all types of marijuana edibles in child-proof containers away from the reach of your dogs.
- Learn about the immediate actions to help your dog get out of the high state.
- Always keep in touch with a veterinarian living close to your place. So you can immediately reach there in case of any problem.
To Wrap It Up
In this post, we came up with the best solution for what to do if your dog eats edibles. Marijuana is terrible for any dog, just like it is for humans. The harmful effects of edibles depend upon their constituents and the amount of cannabis present in it. But the ultimate solution to eliminate the harmful effects of edibles is to rush to a vet and get your dog treated immediately. Prevention is always better than cure. So always prefer to keep the marijuana edibles out of the reach of your dogs.
