Is CBD Oil Right For Your Pet?

You’ve seen this headline before. It’s everywhere, from your hometown to your phone screens: ‘CBD for Pets!’ Pardon the pun here, but is this just another marketing gimmick for snake oil?

The Endocannabinoid System

Rest assured, it is not. This flexibility in CBD use is not merely another cheap shot from salespeople- it’s a certainty guaranteed to us all by natural conditions that arose long before our species showed up. CBD can affect dogs, cats, and literally every animal that’s come around in the past couple hundred million years or so. This is due to the endocannabinoid system, a collection of lipid-based retrograde neurotransmitters, cannabinoid receptors, and enzymes that degrade and produce endocannabinoids- found throughout the central and peripheral nervous systems of living beings that first expressed itself in sea-squirts over 600 million years ago.

While it’s still being studied today, it is suspected that the endocannabinoid system directly and indirectly supports and potentially regulates a plethora of cognitive, physiological and regenerative processes. This massive collection of potentially affected processes includes those pertaining to the immune, digestive, nervous and cardiovascular systems; skin and muscular health; fertility, pregnancy, pre- and post-natal development; mood, memory and mental health; physiological and psychological repair; and the sensation of pain.

To put it simply: the endocannabinoid system has been helping all of Earth’s denizens process and organically synthesize cannabinoids for their personal, therapeutic use for a VERY long time.

CBD’s Effects on Animals

All animals currently on this planet, including the two-legged variety, have endocannabinoid systems. These endocannabinoid systems all function similarly and have the same impacts on our health. While CBD and the hundreds of other cannabinoids in hemp and cannabis are still being studied, a growing body of evidence suggests that cannabinoids processed from external sources affect all creatures in similar ways- though the expression of these benefits will appear slightly different per species.

Here are some of the benefits most commonly reported by researchers, clinicians and users administering CBD to their pets:

• The reduction or elimination of seizure activity
• Anxiety relief, including separation anxiety
• Pain and inflammation reduction
• Behavioral improvements, including “marking” behaviors
• Cognitive improvements, energy gains
• Incontinence reduction
• Improvements in the functions of the digestive, nervous and cardiovascular systems

Like their human families, our pets can’t overdose on CBD- but that doesn’t inherently mean every CBD product is safe for your pet, nor does it mean your pet can or should take an unnecessary amount of the products intended for their use.

“So my pet can take CBD. Can we both take the same CBD?”

Yes and no. Both you and your pets can take CBD- and the whole family could potentially benefit from taking CBD on a regular basis- but you can’t necessarily take the same CBD products. This is due to the other ingredients involved: many products intended for some form of human use contain sweeteners, carrier agents and other ingredients that are toxic to non-human species. While dogs and cats have the best chances of processing substances traditionally meant for humans of any of our favorite animals- but are still easily susceptible to poisoning- pets such as birds and reptiles are more frequently injured or killed by accidentally getting into the things we ingest than not.

For instance, you and your favorite dog, cat, mouse, rat, sugar glider, bird, lizard, tortoise or snake can take drops of our CBD Pet Oil together- but you can’t share our peppermint and lemon tinctures, gummies or freeze balms.

With only two ingredients, Silver Owl CBD Pet Oil doesn’t leave much to chance. Our CBD isolate is CBD in its purest form and is free of any contaminants, solvents, ingredients and processing that could compromise your pet’s health.

That leaves the MCT Oil. The MCT (Medium Chain Triglyceride) Oil we use is extracted from coconut oil and acts as the carrier agent that introduces our CBD isolate to the minds and bodies of you and your pets. As a standalone substance, MCT Oil is considered by many to have its own beneficial effects.

So how safe is this for your pet? And can your pet even take our CBD Pet Oil?

Dogs

While large amounts of MCT Oil can cause digestive and incontinence issues for your dog, research suggests MCT Oil in small doses might be able to aid and potentially heal the digestive system’s processes, as well as improving the cognitive function and energy levels of older dogs. Paired with the myriad benefits of CBD use, our CBD Pet Oil is a safe and tremendously useful additive for your dog’s diet!

Cats

Cats actually have an easier time processing MCT Oil than dogs do and stand to gain more of the benefits of the oil itself. Many users report improvement in their cats’ coats, skin conditions and metabolic function. Another commonly reported improvement is a decline in marking in spraying inside. And since these behaviors are more commonly observed in our feline friends, CBD has become incredibly popular for cat parents around the world.

Rodents

Both MCT Oil and CBD can provide the same benefits to rodents and other small mammals that they offer to cats and dogs. Interestingly enough, rats and mice were the first species on Earth given lab-grade CBD and are responsible for a bulk of humanity’s cutting-edge information on CBD’s effects!

Rodents may have more sensitive serotonin and pain receptors that respond more actively to CBD, whereas their CB1 cannabinoid receptors- which are typically triggered by THC for its high and indirectly affected by CBD- didn’t respond to CBD during lab studies on these animals. As a result, the impacts of CBD on your mouse, rat or other small mammal might be more noticeable at an earlier stage in its administration.

Birds

MCT oil can potentially improve the physical conditions, coat and skin appearance, attitudes, behaviors and cognition of the birds we keep as pets. In addition to supporting these benefits, CBD shows promising results in providing inflammation relief and protecting avian species’ immune systems. While the pair of the two ingredients have been especially useful for birds with poor diet, all birds are more susceptible to disease and many bird lovers have reported turning to the combination proactively.

Reptiles

Reptiles can reap the same benefits from MCT Oil and CBD as the rest of America’s most popular pets. The combination of the two has shown promising results for lizards and snakes affected by skin conditions, injuries and open wounds, inflammation, anxiety, stress, digestive troubles and hyperimmune responses.

Not only can our CBD Oil be added to the food and water of your favorite snake, lizard or dragon, it can also be diffused in water and applied topically with a spray bottle. This might be an especially useful application for external conditions.

Safely Administering Silver Owl CBD Pet Oil to Your Small Pet

Like with any pet, coconut oils given to birds, reptiles and small mammals are best in small quantities and might become problematic in larger amounts. This is true of any species, including humans, and should not be feared as much as respected; common sense dictates that if you drink a whole 30ml bottle of oil, or the equivalent in a much smaller body weight, you’ll get sick.

It must be noted that birds, lizards, snakes and rodents are much physically smaller than dogs and cats; therefore, any dose of our CBD Pet Oil given to your bird, lizard or snake must be much smaller than what’s been recommended on our label. We encourage this blog’s readers to do some personal research into safely administering MCT Oil and CBD to their smaller, more exotic pets.

Disclaimer

*These claims have not been evaluated by the FDA. Our products are not intended, nor are to be used, to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you or your loved ones have serious health concerns, please consult a physician,a trained medical or veterinary professional, or emergency medical services.