Vet recommends medical marijuana for pets in pain

PJ_Soul

know1 wrote:

goingtoverona wrote:

like what? can you elaborate please as to which medications have the same effect as cannabis? also, what's wrong with going this route?

know1 wrote:

There are plenty of other viable pain meds without going down this route.

There are plenty of them that are actually designed for pain reduction. That's not really pot's main gig.

Supposedly some people think it works to control pain... but I don't see it. I get using it when you need to keep your appetite up completely (fucking munchies :fp: ), but when I'm in pain with an injury and I get high, the pain actually intensifies because my being stoned makes me overthink the pain and I focus into it, and even trip out on the pain a little, which sucks. That is the exact opposite of what I want to happen. Everyone's different, so I'm sure others are distracted from their pain or whatever when they're high, but I definitely would NOT consider weed a reliable medical treatment for pain.

hedonist

PJ_Soul wrote:

Supposedly some people think it works to control pain... but I don't see it. I get using it when you need to keep your appetite up completely (fucking munchies :fp: ), but when I'm in pain with an injury and I get high, the pain actually intensifies because my being stoned makes me overthink the pain and I focus into it, and even trip out on the pain a little, which sucks. That is the exact opposite of what I want to happen. Everyone's different, so I'm sure others are distracted from their pain or whatever when they're high, but I definitely would NOT consider weed a reliable medical treatment for pain.

It depends on what KIND of pain - my back, cramps, migraines (and I actually do use other meds from time to time).

I get the overthinking thing though :P

redrock

Not too sure how I feel about this. Not from a moral point of view but what do we really know about the dog's 'psyche'? Maybe it dulls pain, but does the 'high' have the same effect on the dog than it would a human (from a psychological point of view)? I don't think anyone can really say. And what happens if the dog has a little bit of a freak out? Does one hold his paw saying 'don't worry.. it's OK'? Are we just projecting our human ideal of a high to an animal? Or does it affect the biochemical pathways in the same way?

I'm sure the biology/physical side is covered but I'm wondering about the psychological side of things.

PJ_Soul

redrock wrote:

Not too sure how I feel about this. Not from a moral point of view but what do we really know about the dog's 'psyche'? Maybe it dulls pain, but does the 'high' have the same effect on the dog than it would a human (from a psychological point of view)? I don't think anyone can really say. And what happens if the dog has a little bit of a freak out? Does one hold his paw saying 'don't worry.. it's OK'? Are we just projecting our human ideal of a high to an animal? Or does it affect the biochemical pathways in the same way?

I'm sure the biology/physical side is covered but I'm wondering about the psychological side of things.

I totally think we're just projecting onto our pets, especially in this scenario. I don't think anyone should ever give mind altering recreational drugs to a dog. What, are we going to get our dogs drunk too? :fp: There is no way a dog would enjoy being high around the clock. I think this is all just crazy talk, frankly.

goingtoverona

doctors and scientists around the world have shown that marijuana is medicine. it's a proven fact. that being said, it's not recreational. I also don't get the mind altering statement. what the hell does that even mean? it amazes me that people actually think that man made chemical pills are safer than a plant. crazy talk indeed.

PJ_Soul

goingtoverona wrote:

doctors and scientists around the world have shown that marijuana is medicine. it's a proven fact. that being said, it's not recreational. I also don't get the mind altering statement. what the hell does that even mean? it amazes me that people actually think that man made chemical pills are safer than a plant. crazy talk indeed.

Sure, if they want to call it medicine, great. But it's not an effective pain medicine as far as I'm concerned. If it actually increases my sense of pain (and others have said the same thing about it), then it's not an effective pain medicine. At best, it's hit and miss.
Also, I'm not sure what YOU mean by suggesting that pot isn't recreational or that ... what? That it doesn't alter your thinking?? I'm not sure what you're getting at. When I smoke weed, I get enjoyably high, and later I get hungry and sleepy. That's it. My pain, if I happen to have any, gets worse and harder to stand.
Finally, did anyone say that chemical pills are safer generally?? No. Some are just saying that getting a dog high, even if we THINK it MIGHT reduce their pain (but have NO way of knowing that at all, nor do we know whether being high is preferable to the pain for them if it does happen to reduce their pain), is probably not a good idea.

norm

all pain medication is mind altering

PJ_Soul

norm wrote:

all pain medication is mind altering

Well, technically. But I don't get high off of extra strength Advil.

norm

oh shit, i thought we were talking about real pain meds

i'm sorry weed hasn't worked on your pain allie, but for me and millions of others it's the only thing keeping us going...and if can help dogs or cats then they should have it too...as for the "hallucinations" well, i've seen my dog on "legal" pain meds and just by looking at him, i don't think the weed would be any different

Wobbie

norm wrote:

but for me and millions of others it's the only thing keeping us going...

that's your secret, huh? :?

norm

imalive wrote:

norm wrote:

but for me and millions of others it's the only thing keeping us going...

that's your secret, huh? :?

pretty much :(

PJ_Soul

norm wrote:

oh shit, i thought we were talking about real pain meds

i'm sorry weed hasn't worked on your pain allie, but for me and millions of others it's the only thing keeping us going...and if can help dogs or cats then they should have it too...as for the "hallucinations" well, i've seen my dog on "legal" pain meds and just by looking at him, i don't think the weed would be any different

I understand that it does work for some. I believe it works for some because those people get high and are "feeling no pain" so to speak, and perhaps it has an actual chemical effect on people's pain receptors. But not mine, and not millions of others I'm sure. So while it works for many, which is great, it also doesn't work for many. To me, that means it's not what the medical community can really call effective pain medication. It simply isn't reliable enough for them to call it that. I don't mean to say that if it does work for someone they shouldn't use it. They absolutely should, and I support medical marijuana programs - luckily, the side effects of weed are negligible at worst, so unlike with other medications, there is no reason to restrict this one just because it doesn't work on a lot of people or makes a lot of people feel uncomfortable. However, since we have NO idea how it affects individual animals or their pain, and no good way of finding out, I think right now it's irresponsible to be giving weed to pets.

norm

:?
advil, tylenol, hell Vicodin doesn't work for me...should we stop giving it to the people it works for?

oh and this

those people get high and are "feeling no pain" so to speak

is complete bullshit...i still feel the pain but it's overwhelmed by "good feeling" that comes from the "high"

seriously, not everybody who smokes pot is jeff spicoli

and how do vets know how the current meds affect dogs? since as you claim they can't know how pot affects dogs?

PJ_Soul

norm wrote:

:?
advil, tylenol, hell Vicodin doesn't work for me...should we stop giving it to the people it works for?

oh and this

those people get high and are "feeling no pain" so to speak

is complete bullshit...i still feel the pain but it's overwhelmed by "good feeling" that comes from the "high"

seriously, not everybody who smokes pot is jeff spicoli

and how do vets know how the current meds affect dogs? since as you claim they can't know how pot affects dogs?

But advil and vicodin does generally work for particular levels of pain is the point. For me, local anesthetic isn't very effective - they have to use 3 times more for me than most people. But I still consider it and the way it's normally administered a legit pain killer, because I'm in a small minority there.
I have no idea why you seem to be getting mad (and yeah, I smoke pot, and I'm not Jeff Spicoli either, and acknowledged that it may well inhibit pain receptors), since I spoke in support of using weed as pain medication and programs that support it. I'm arguing against using it for pets.

I'm not making an argument FOR other meds for pets. I'm just saying it seem irresponsible to just start giving weed to your dog simply because people use it. I would say the same thing if we were talking about feeding Advil or Vicodin to dogs too, BTW. Just because you don't go giving drugs to pets just because people take them. There is no scientific research to suggest that weed is okay for pets or that it helps them for pain. For other pet meds, research has been done, studies carried out. Not so for weed. Marijuana falls under the category of alternative medicine. It's herbal. It shouldn't even be prescribed by doctors (I mean, for the time being it has to be because of the law, but that should not be the case). That's the first step to the fucking prescription drug companies getting in on it, and god knows no one wants that, so it would serve people who use it for pain to not try and insist that weed is a legit pain medicine for use in the mainstream medical profession IMHO. Next thing you know, it will cost $40 a gram.

gimmesometruth27

i don't understand why studies take 10 years. they should have been studying this for animals when they began studying the effects on humans.

dogs can not tell you when they are in pain. you can observe them and objectively know when they are in pain. my dog had hip dysplasia and arthritis. he took an anti inflammatory called duralactin, and if he missed a day or two of that he would lie around and limp around. when he took it he would run and jump around like nothing was wrong. it had side effects of gi upset and diarrhea so he had a lot of accidents in the house the last 8 months or so. he also had the dog equivalent of celebrex, which also helped, but at $90 for 20 pills it was not very cost effective. i would not have been opposed to trying the cannabis oil to be put on his skin. it would not have hurt anything. then again, i have patients that smoke medical marijuana every day with good results and no negative side effects.