With all the buzz around CBD, using CBD for pets is becoming increasingly popular. And chances are, if you’re reading this article, you’re considering using CBD for your dog or cat.
But as any responsible pet parent would, you’re probably wondering if the hype is justified. How does CBD oil work for pets? What can CBD oil do for pets? And what are the benefits of CBD oil for pets?
In this article, we discuss why and how CBD works for pets as well as answer the question, what are the benefits of CBD for pets? So, let’s dive in!
Why CBD Works for Pets
The reason plant cannabinoids like CBD work for pets is because they interact directly with many of the physiological and biological systems found in the body of all mammals, including your pet’s, through the endocannabinoid system (ECS).
Your Pet’s Endocannabinoid System
The ECS plays a very important role in helping your pet’s body stay healthy and happy. It does this by helping their bodies maintain a constant state of homeostasis or balance. Think of this as a “Goldilocks” zone where all the conditions are just right for cells, tissues and physiological systems to work at their best. The ECS is made up of three different parts:
Cannabinoid Receptors
Cannabinoid receptors allow cannabinoids like CBD to interact with your pet’s body. They are located throughout the body and are involved in a wide range of different physiological processes. Some examples of these processes include appetite, pain-sensation, and temperament.
Endocannabinoids
Your pet’s body also produces its own natural cannabinoids, called endocannabinoids. These endocannabinoids bind to activate and regulate the cannabinoid receptors found throughout the body.
Metabolic Enzymes
The ECS’s metabolic enzymes are what break down the endocannabinoids once they have done their job. They’re also responsible for breaking down plant cannabinoids such as CBD. This means they don’t stay in your pet’s body and why CBD is so safe to use in pets.
What Does CBD Oil Do for Pets?
Unfortunately, just like any of your pet’s other biological systems, their ECS can become dysfunctional. This usually happens when the aforementioned metabolic enzymes break down too many of their own endocannabinoids, resulting in an insufficient amount present in their bodies. When this happens, it can cause their bodies to fall out of homeostasis or out of balance.
In fact, scientists now believe that the EC plays such an important role in the health of the body that many of the symptoms and diseases you and your pet experience are because of a concept called Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency (CECD).
What CBD oil can do for pets is help restore this balance by kick-starting your pet’s ECS, thereby mimicking the way their own endocannabinoids work naturally in their bodies.
Researchers have found that when your dog or cat ingests CBD oil, it interacts with, and regulates the same receptor cells that their very own endocannabinoids and other types of neurotransmitters interact with.
So the easiest way to think of it is like this: CBD acts like your dog or cat’s own endocannabinoids in such a way that it helps kick-start the ECS. This, in turn, helps rebalance their bodies and their systems again.
Scientists also believe that this is the main reason plant cannabinoids such as CBD can help relieve so many symptoms to common conditions your pet may experience.
What Are the Benefits of CBD Oil for Pets?
Unfortunately, there is still relatively little research that focuses specifically on the effects and benefits of CBD oil for pets. And although this is true, we are not completely in the dark about what CBD can do for our pets.
There is an ever-growing body of scientific and clinical evidence from both animal and human studies showing that CBD interacts with the ECS as well as many other biological and physiological systems, to produce potentially powerful beneficial effects.
And because these systems fundamentally work the same way in all mammals, we can draw several conclusions from these studies, about the types of symptoms and conditions for which CBD may provide your pet relief.
So, let’s take a look at what we do know from the ever-growing body of scientific and clinical evidence about the way CBD interacts with your pet’s ECS as well as the many other biological and physiological systems, to produce its many benefits.
Pain & Inflammation
There are many reasons why your pet may experience pain. One major reason is due to inflammation associated with arthritis or age. Pain may also be the result of some type of injury, disease or even some other form of medical intervention like surgery or cancer treatment.
Some benefits of CBD oil for pets may include the reduction of both pain and inflammation. CBD suppresses the receptors responsible for pain as well as pain processing directly. Similarly, CBD can help decrease the activity of the inflammatory enzymes in the same way as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen do.
Stress & Anxiety
Just like us, our pets can suffer from stress and anxiety. Whether it’s a chronic issue such as separation anxiety or something more sporadic like fear of thunder or fireworks, seeing our animals stressed and anxious can be traumatic for everyone. CBD helps reduce the symptoms of stress and anxiety by binding to serotonin receptors which are responsible for anxiety. At the same time, CBD prevents overstimulation of ECS receptors while boosting the production of the endocannabinoids responsible for mood and memory.
Mobility & Arthritis
As our pets get older, they often start struggling with the same types of issues we do. The most common of which are mobility issues and arthritis. These issues are characterized by inflammation and something called oxidative stress or the immune system’s response to inflammation. This can, in turn, causes tissue damage and dysfunction.
As we’ve seen, CBD can be a powerful anti-inflammatory, working as well as NSAIDs like Ibuprofen and Naproxen, but it can also work against oxidative stress. CBD reduces both oxidative stress and joint inflammation in dogs and cats suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. This can in turn help with their mobility issues and pain.
Adjunct / Palliative Therapy
One reason why many pet parents investigate CBD for their pets is as either an adjunct or palliative therapy. CBD can help reduce the side effects of and sometimes even replace many medications your pets are already on. CBD can also help treat symptoms of more serious conditions such as cancer and epilepsy.
For instance, CBD is widely used as an anti-epileptic in both humans and animals. Similarly, CBD can help reduce nausea, rapid weight loss, dehydration and fatigue associated with chemotherapy. It has also shown potential as an anti-cancer agent by cutting blood flow to tumors. This leads to tumorous cell death and inhibits cancer cells from metastasizing.
General Health & Wellness
As mentioned earlier, the main reason why CBD is so good at what it does is that it induces a state of physiological and chemical balance in the body. This state of balance allows it and its systems to function at their best.
This is also one of the major benefits of CBD for pets and why many pet owners are using it. In addition to using CBD for specific conditions, pet parents are also using it as a nutritional supplement to promote overall health and wellness and help prevent future health issues in dogs and cats of all ages.
The Bottom Line on How CBD Works for Pets
The benefits CBD offers pets comes from its ability to interact with and stimulate your dog or cat’s ECS. You can think of this as your dog or cat’s own internal cannabinoid making system which is involved in the regulation of so many biological and physiological functions.
Sometimes the ECS can stop working properly, lacking enough of the endocannabinoids that make it run smoothly, causing a wide variety of different symptoms and ailments in your pet. CBD oil can mimic the endocannabinoids that make up a part of this system, kick-starting it again, and helping to bring your pet’s body back into a state of homeostasis. This ultimately helps reduce the symptoms of some common conditions your pet may be suffering from.
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