Paws, Reflect & Heal with Dr. Randy

The TRUTH About CBD for Pet Pain & Anxiety

• Episode 32

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In this essential Q&A, Dr. Randy Aronson, The Pet Vet, tackles the most common questions from pet parents about using CBD for dogs and cats. We dive into the science behind CBD's effectiveness for managing pain, inflammation, and anxiety in your beloved pets. Discover the specific cases where this holistic approach can offer relief and how it compares to traditional NSAIDs like Rimadyl, avoiding potential liver and kidney side effects.

The conversation moves beyond just benefits to address a critical, often-overlooked danger: glyphosate contamination in low-quality CBD products made from the hemp plant. Dr. Randy shares why sourcing clean, certified CBD is vital for your pet's health and recommends a quality-controlled product. We also discuss CBD's nervous system calming effects, the gut-brain connection, and key warning signs like lethargy, so you can safely and effectively administer it to your pet 

#CBDforPets #HolisticPetCare #DogAnxiety #PetPainRelief #holisticvet

Excellent CBD resource: Dr. Fossum's Pet Care: https://drfossums.com

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Send your questions to AskMe@drrandypetvet.com so Dr. Randy can answer them in future episodes!

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Products and Resources I Recommend
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SPEAKER_00:

Dr. Randy here with my co-host Olivia Sache from the University of uh Pennsylvania University. I almost said put you to my school. University of Arizona Veterinary School.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much. Bear down. Happy to be here. I have to remind them I'm from Arizona.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. So we have a question from Tom in Philadelphia. Tom asks about CBD, which is a great question because it is all over the internet. And let's talk about that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So basically, Tom is a blogger, and his question has to do with his inability to find research on CBD and its effectiveness in his pets. And so he wants to know kind of what are your opinions for it and what are your indications where you see something and you say, you know, they would benefit from CBD in this, if any.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you know, CBD, it has been studied and not studied. I mean, there's a lot of uh Google information about CBD, some good, some bad. Um, I think there are more studies needed still about its effectiveness. But we do see with the animals that um I treat that are my pet parents or pet guardians have used CBD, definitely a help in a number of different areas.

SPEAKER_01:

And so can you elaborate on the cases where you think CBD is most helpful?

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. So I think the first one that I would allude to is pain and inflammation.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I think CBD does a really good uh job of reducing inflammatory cytokines, which really modulates some of this pain. And studies and dogs have shown definitely improved quality of life on CBD uh for that specific problem.

SPEAKER_01:

That's interesting because I think what I hear most from pet parents using CBD is when they have anxious pets. Yeah. Do you think it's also warranted in that case as well?

SPEAKER_00:

I do. I do. Okay. Um CBD in that situation, um, I'm gonna look a little, but it calms the nervous system uh via the serotonin uh receptor activity.

SPEAKER_01:

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00:

So it really can be useful for separation anxiety, for aggression, for other types of behavioral type issues. And uh there definitely is, again, a gut-brain connection. So we work a lot on the other things that we've uh often talked about. Yes. But the CBD can be very helpful.

SPEAKER_01:

No, and that's a great point as well that again, the microbiome has so many implications, not only in gut health, but you were talking about the brain barrier as well. Right. And so that's another avenue that they can use to help with that. And then can you kind of touch on why we might reach for CBD instead of some of our other medications?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, absolutely. So um, you know, medications are medications and they're not without side effects. Um, some of like, let's say, the pain medications we were talking about, osteoarthritis or pain management, you know, the NSAIDs we call them. This would be Deramax, Rimidil, carprofen, vetprofen, uh, maloxicam, these are very good medications for pain, but they also have secondary side effects.

SPEAKER_01:

Are we talking about the liver and kidneys? Yes, we are.

SPEAKER_00:

We're talking about the liver and kidney. So if we can get away with uh supplements and things like CBD, we're definitely way ahead of the game uh versus having to use those on a constant basis.

SPEAKER_01:

No, and that makes sense, especially because we already have as for example with cats, we already have a lot of cats that have kidney issues. And so we're already dealing with that. And if they have pain in addition to that, it can be really difficult to try to mitigate that with pain medications like Rimidil that are going to have those side effects. Absolutely. So that's maybe where we would go on CBD to try to help.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. And I want to mention uh another thing about CBD, which is really important. Um, CBD is made from hemp, the hemp plant. And hemp plant in the wild is basically something that just draws all kinds of toxic things out of the environment and it's soil that it's in. The biggest problem that we're seeing is everybody, and excuse my friends, the mothers of are making CBD. And the reality is that if they're picking hemp that's been around fields sprayed with glyphosphate or roundup, this is a very, very large problem. Veterinary schools are now doing biopsies on dog and cats' livers and looking at uh the amount of glyphosphate or roundup, and they have found 30 times the amount that should be allowable in livers in in animals that have passed away.

SPEAKER_01:

That is insane to me. It's only my 83rd day of vet school, so we haven't done we haven't done that yet.

SPEAKER_00:

Luckily you know that specifically.

SPEAKER_01:

I looked it up the other day. Yeah. But that's good to know. Maybe that's coming, and and that's really interesting. Are there other avenues of of glyphosphate getting into our pet patients?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we think that there are very large levels of glyphosphate sneaking into our pet's kibble. You'll hear me often talk about not using a kibble type diet. Right. One of the reasons is that the other reason is that it's just so super processed, you know, heated at crazy temperatures, and we get these AGEs or advanced glycolation end products. All of these things are not important to you guys, just to know that we'll take care of them. We'll talk we'll talk about diets at some other point and what kind of what to do and what to not to do. But what I'm mentioning, the CBD as far as the hemp plant, really be specific on where you get it from. Right. I am a huge proponent and and I don't work for her, but Dr. Fossum uh is at the Western Uh Reserve University up in Phoenix, and she developed her own uh CBD product. It's very, very it's air purified. There's a certificate of analysis on and quality control on every batch done. So Dr. Fossum CBD, take a look at that if you're going to use one. That's one I definitely could recommend. Dr. Fossum is what?

SPEAKER_01:

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_01:

Perfect. And then our last question um has to do are there any side effects or anything we should look for when administering CBD to our to our patients?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, some animals will often get, uh, depending on the dose response, will often get very sleepy or lethargic on it. Right. Um, I don't really see a lot of other side effects. That's most commonly what we see. If your animal is getting that on the dose you're giving, you're giving too much. So we really want to back off a little bit to make sure that we don't overdo it with anything that we're doing, even supplements.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Okay. Well, thank you. Sure. That was a very complete answer. I appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you guys for joining us. Um, for more information, we're coming out with content every week. You can follow us on our social media accounts. Dr. Randy has an Instagram at Dr. Rand uh Dr. Randy Petbet.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Perfect. Um, you can follow him on there. New videos are gonna come out. Also, YouTube, same handle for myself. I have Instagram at Dr. Sochi. Um, and we hope to see you guys next week.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. And remember, pass this information on to your friends who have pets because we want to get as much of this information out to our pet parents and guardians. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks.