An Ottawa woman is warning people about the dangers of pot and pets.
Her golden retriever became really ill after ingesting something on a walk in a park recently. Her vet says that "something" was cannabis and it's happening all the time.
We know that many "human" things can be toxic to dogs: onions, chocolate, even sugarless gum.
Add one more to the list, something vets here are seeing weekly now: toxicity from cannabis.
Like most dogs, Annie loves her walks. The 2 and a half year old Golden Retriever is full of youthful energy. But something seemed amiss last weekend, hours after Margaret Gale-Rowe returned with Annie from a walk in this nearby park.
“She had zeroed in on something and sniffed it and ate it,” says Gale-Rowe, a physician trained in public health.
That evening, Annie was swaying on her feet. She was lethargic, her pupils dilated. They took her to the Ottawa Animal Emergency & Specialty Hospital, a 24-hour emergency clinic where a registered veterinary technician saw Annie.
“One thing she pointed out which we hadn't noticed was that she was dribbling urine,” says Gale-Rowe, “but she said the unsteadiness, the lethargy, the sedation, the dilated pupils, all those things are typical (of exposure to cannabis) and she said they're seeing it once a week.”
In fact, one of the clinic's veterinarians says she's seeing cannabis toxicity even more than that and suspects it may get worse after Wednesday, when recreational marijuana is legalized.
Dr. Jackie Pelot has worked in emergency veterinary medicine for ten years,
“I don't even remember in the first five years ever seeing a pot ingestion,” she says, “In last 2 to 3 years, it has become increasingly common and now we see them at least once a week, usually more than that.”
This isn't just a problem just in Ottawa. A study out of the U.S. a few years ago showed a dramatic increase in levels of toxicity among dogs living in Colorado, a state that recently legalized cannabis. The study found a four-fold increase.
Dr. Pelot says dogs are attracted to the sweet smell of cannabis and worries the situation could worsen when edibles arrive on the scene.
“My concern is we see a higher strength of THC, we could start to see fatalities,” she says. She says dog owners need to watch for the warnings signs including sleepiness, wobbling or agitation, vomiting, bloodshot eyes and urine dribbling.
It took Annie a full day to recover. She's back to her usual, loveable self with Margaret Gale-Rowe keeping a closer eye on anything she might eat.