A few days ago, my animal hospital received a phone call from a worried client. Their beloved bulldog pup, we will call him “Bluey,” was acting very abnormally.
The owner had returned home from work and found him tremoring, profoundly lethargic, and unable to really walk or move on his own.
Noting the concern in his voice, and the suspicious symptoms that the client was describing, we told him to bring in the pup right away.
When the dog arrived into our lobby, the technicians took the tremoring Bluey from his owner’s arms and rushed him into our treatment room for triage and assessment.
He was jerkily tremoring as my technician held him, and we reviewed the clinical history.
With any movement of her arms or loud noise, he would violently shudder. If we were quiet and didn’t move him in any way, he would fall quickly into a sedated and peaceful slumber.
The peculiar aspect of this case was that Bluey was barely a year old, healthy as a horse just this morning, and in good flesh with a beautiful shiny coat.
Whatever the cause for his presentation, it was clear that this was an acute disease — he was obviously a healthy dog just hours earlier.
Upon questioning, the owner reported that Bluey has never before shown any neurological signs, had received no flea preventatives or medications as of late, and had been very chipper on his normal lunchtime walk.
My immediate thought was of course that Blue had gotten into something; either a commercial pesticide such as snail bait, moldly food or some similar “tremorgenic” toxin, or some kind of recreational drug.
His doting owner had absolutely nothing in the house that fell into these categories.
However Bluey was known for nibbling on things found on walks, so we weren’t able to rule anything out. As we were performing diagnostics (like bloodwork, blood pressure, and the like), Bluey kindly provided us with two important clues to the toxin he had ingested.
The first clue was that he started involuntarily dribbling urine, which is a very typical symptom of THC toxicity.
The second is that he abruptly and without any warning, vomiting up a large amount of foul ingesta that was tinged with the familiar skunky odor.
We didn’t need the drug test to confirm our suspicion: Bluey had gotten into somebody’s stash.
The effects of THC, the active ingredient in Cannibis sativa or Cannibis indica, can be profound and very unpleasant for dogs and cats.
After eating the raw leaves/flowers of the plant, edibles of any kind, or even exposure to second-hand smoke, animals will exhibit central nervous system depression (somnolence and depression, abrupt tremors when stimulated, incoordination and trouble walking) as well as cardiovascular effects such as slow heart rate and low blood pressure.
Also frequently noted are urinary incontinence, vomiting, behavior changes, and a drop in temperature.
Dogs and cats on THC are pretty much guaranteed a “bad trip.”
Treatment is generally supportive, and depends on how severe the clinical symptoms are. Sometimes veterinarians will need to administer anti-seizure drugs or sedatives, give fluids and anti-nausea medications, and provide cardiovascular support.
The prognosis is very good overall, but can depend on the dose of THC and if it is contaminated with any other recreational drugs, which can compound the effects.
Once we were able to diagnose Bluey with THC toxicosis, and rule out some scarier toxicities, we felt relief.
Bluey was stabilized at our clinic, and then the owner was given instructions to take Bluey home for rest in a cozy, darkened room, and to call us with an update in the morning.
To Bluey, we gave strict orders to “stay out of trouble!”