Why my animals need CBD-infused treats and oil
Of my three (3) animals, I’ve only given two (2) of them CBD-infused treats and oil.
Brik, the oldest of my two (2) cats, is 6-years-old. He has endured far more than his fair share of medical issues: urinary crystals, emotional trauma, food insecurity, a bone infection with single-cell cancer in one of his toes on his front-left paw (which had to be amputated), and a chicken allergy so bad that he scratched literal chunks of his skin off. The allergy got so bad that a cone didn’t work. We (my husband and I) had to wrap him in an ace bandage to keep him from scratching himself. Even with only that much information, I think it’s pretty obvious that Brik has had a rough life so far.
My dog Juno, who turns 9-years-old next month, hasn’t had as many physical health issues as Brik. However, she definitely struggles with anxiety, overly submissive behavior, ear car sickness. Although Juno loves going to new places, and she no longer throws up in the car, she still doesn’t enjoy car rides.
How I introduced CBD-infused treats to my animals
I first purchased CBD-infused treats at a local (and boujee AF) pet care store when I was living in Seattle, Washington. It was the same place I purchased Brik and Juno’s food every month. The employees were always kind and informative. But, like most retail environments, they were required to upsell their customers. Lucky for them, I was already interested in CBD-infused oil or treats: I just didn’t know where to start.
Initially, I bought a bag of CBD-infused, pumpkin flavored dog treats by a company called Treatibles. The bag had 30-ish treats, and each treat was infused with 4mg of CBD. If I remember correctly, the bag cost about $32 to $35. Thankfully, both Juno and Brik seemed to like the taste of the treats. At first, we only gave them the treats when we were leaving for work for the day, or if we had to go on vacation and leave them with a pet sitter.
Later, we bought a bottle of CBD-infused oil from the same pet store. The store made and sold their own line of CBD-infused oils, so the price was pretty reasonable considering our other options. Although the bottle was about $30 as well, it seemed like a better investment in the long run. It was also easier to get our animals to take the oil because we were able to squirt it into their mouths directly.
Was it worth the cost?
Yes. And although we had consistently great results giving Brik and Juno CBD oil to calm their nerves, it really paid off when Brik starting peeing blood as a result of his urinary crystals.
At first, we didn’t know what was wrong with him. He had seemed fine, but then one night he started growling at his genitals. It’s easy to laugh at in retrospect, but it was terrifying at the time. We couldn’t even pick him up without him growling more loudly and angrily. We thought he was constipated, or that maybe we had accidentally knicked his penis when we were shaving him. It was also bad timing because we were in the process of moving. We tried giving him a laxative, and that helped him poop, but he was still in pain.
After we got his diagnoses, the vet sent us home with pain meds in pill form. Brik hates taking any medicine, probably because he’s had to take so much of it in his life, but he especially hates medicine in pill form. We have tried to hide pills in pill pockets, shrimp, tuna (his absolute favorite thing in the world), etc. Nothing worked. In order to give him his pain meds, I had to crush up the pill, mix it with water, and then squirt it down his throat with a syringe. It was horrible. Also, once the pain medication set in, Brik would act really weird. He could barely walk, let alone make it to the litter box on his own. As a result, he would get really grumpy. He hates being physically incapacitated more than he hates taking medicine.
Eventually, I got tired of torturing the poor boy. He was so miserable and I was desperate to help him any way I could. So, I stopped crushing up his pain pills and started using the CBD-infused oil we had. Up to that point, we hadn’t used it very often, so the bottle was mostly full. Although he wasn’t too pleased with the taste (which, if it was anything like the smell, was probably horrible), he actually seemed to feel better. He was able to walk around the house and function independently. He was also a lot more cuddly. He begged to be held instead of angerly warning people to stay away. The CBD-infused oil didn’t just take away his pain (like the pain meds had), it improved his mood and that is an essential part of the healing process.
So yes, even though the CBD oil was pretty costly, I think it was 100-percent worth the cost. Besides, it wasn’t actually much more expensive than the medication we had to buy at the veterinary hospital.
