PETS, POT EDIBLES DON’T MIX
Growing menace to animals from marijuana
Pets are paying the price for the growing prevalence of pot-laced edibles when they’re carelessly stored, according to veterinarians.
Nationally, the number of marijuana-related calls to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 24-hour Poison Control Center soared from 208 in 2008 to 1,800 last year, while the number of calls from Massachusetts increased ninefold during the same period, from 11 to 99.
The statistics tell a cautionary tale about the often untold cost of recreational marijuana, which is now legal in 10 states, and medical cannabis, which is legal in 33.
Dr. Elizabeth Rozanski, an emergency room veterinarian at the Foster Hospital for Small Animals at Cummings Veterinary Medical Center at Tufts University in Grafton, said the hospital sees 20 to 25 dogs each month who have eaten brownies or other edibles laced with marijuana, an increase of 10 to 15 percent over the last few years. She has not seen any cats who have because cats, unlike dogs, don’t have a sweet tooth, she said.
“We’ve always seen animals we’ve suspected of having ingested marijuana,” Rozanski said. “The difference is today, people are more open about telling us, now that marijuana is legal.”
The chief symptoms are lethargy, slow heart rate and incontinence, symptoms that generally subside within 24 to 48 hours, she said, but pets that ingest pot in high doses can develop pneumonia and are sometimes given an intravenous lipid solution to “soak up” the toxins over three to four days in the hospital.
“It’s almost always accidental, but they can be pretty affected by it,” Rozanski said, “and there’s nothing great to treat them with. It’s scary for the dogs and scary for the people.”
In rare cases, she said, pets can die from marijuana ingestion.
“It’s just common sense to keep these things out of the reach of our pets,” said Rob Halpin, a spokesman for MSPCA-Angell in Boston, which also has seen an increase in the number of pets showing symptoms of cannabis ingestion.
Often, the marijuana is in edibles made of chocolate, which itself is toxic to dogs.
“When you mix them together, the dog’s ingesting two toxins at once,” said Dr. Bart Murphy, a veterinarian at Westside Animal Clinic in Worcester. “For a veterinarian trying to diagnose the dog, there are conflicting signs: The chocolate is a stimulant, while the marijuana causes lethargy.”
If the owner says that the dog may have ingested marijuana, Murphy said, the veterinarian typically induces vomiting and gives the dog intravenous fluids and charcoal to lessen the absorption of the drug in the gastrointestinal tract.
“It’s not fair to the animal to have him go through all that when they didn’t choose it themselves,” he said. “A dog taking marijuana doesn’t have the same enjoyment a person might. Hopefully, if we educate people, this won’t happen as often.”
To contact the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center, call 888-426-4435.