Marijuana is set to be legalized later this year and vets are seeing a rise in animals overdosing on the drug.
Veterinarian Rebecca Maclellan says she’s seen a steady increase in animals needing to be treated for ingesting marijuana, and she’s expecting it to get worse.
“I definitely think the numbers are going to increase, especially because the toxicities are worse when it is the medical grade marijuana.”
She says when pets ingest pot they usually experience vomiting, loss of coordination, and are easily startled.
“Dogs tend to be drawn to it. We will see dogs that have repeat toxicities so, obviously, they have a scent for it and they can find it. Especially if it’s in food products or candies or anything like that, which we’ll see once things are legalized, you know the dog’s not going to notice a brownie with or without.”
She says when animals do take the drug, the best way to treat the then is to flush out their stomach or give them activated charcoal which stops more of it from getting absorbed.
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