Choosing the proper dose to give to your dog can be a touch confusing.
Because CBD oil is a newly-expanding industry, each company’s dosing guideline can vary since the product’s concentration of CBD will vary based on the oils that are being produced.
Dosage can also change depending on which condition you’re aiming to treat. Higher doses are typically recommended for more serious ailments and lower doses for less-serious maladies.
As the CBD industry is only recently starting to take flight, there is no standard guide for how much you should be administering, or how you should administer CBD oil to your dog. It’s also dependent on the specific product – different CBD oil for dogs will have different recommended doses based on the strength & surrounding cannabinoid structure.
Don’t let a confusing dosing meter be the difference between giving your dog CBD oil and not, however. Since CBD is a naturally-grown element, too much of the compound can’t be lethal. Unlike other forms of medication, CBD is not synthetic and there is no chemical fabrication. The plant comes from the ground and if your dog takes too much of it (whether accidental or not), your dog will feel lazy and lethargic — a much better set of consequences versus if your dog overdosed on a chemically-heavy prescription drug.
According to the FDA (the US Food and Drug Administration), the cannabis plant has more than eighty different biologically active compounds. The two most common of which are THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol ) and CBD (cannabidiol). THC is the typically-referenced part of the plan which results in the ‘high’ and euphoric feelings that are associated with marijuana use. Conversely, CBD contains zero psychoactive properties and cannot get you ‘stoned.’ In short, CBD is the part of the cannabis plant that is being revered in the past half-decade for containing a resounding number of health benefits.
Before diving into CBD oil for dogs, it’s important to note that the FDA has listed anxiety, stress, body pain, inflammation, joint pain, nausea, arthritis, and digestion problems as health conditions that can be alleviated through the use of CBD in animals (and humans as well for that matter.)
Main factors to consider
When it comes to usage, there are three main factors to consider when judging the dosing for CBD oil with dogs:
- The CBD’s overall potency
- The weight and size of your dog
- The ailment you’re trying to treat
brown dog retrieving a stick
Secondary factors include your dog’s activity level (which helps to determine how your dog can metabolize the CBD oil), your dog’s overall health, and the quality of CBD oil you’re considering purchasing.
Dog owners should be wary of some CBD products that use THC to ‘activate’ its effects. It’s not uncommon to see some CBD oil products offering a percentage of THC. If that’s the case, you’ll want to ensure you’re not giving CBD to your dog that has anything higher than 0.3% THC. Ideally, you should be choosing CBD products that are 100% THC-free, commonly referred to throughout the industry as ‘CBD isolate’, but both types have advantages.
Broad-spectrum CBD oil has terpenes and is to be used “with caution” with pets, according to Dr. Judy Morgan — a veterinarian with experience with CBD oil.
Full-spectrum CBD oil has very small amounts of THC which is “unlikely” to negatively affect your pet. But Morgan still recommends staying away from anything that has THC components as possible. Since all pets react differently to different foods and medication, some dogs might feel a 0.3% THC a lot more than others, especially smaller dogs. With that said, you might be best off staying away from any THC compound completely.
Calculating CBD oil dosages
As a general rule of thumb, as per Morgan, 0.2 mg (milligrams) of CBD per pound is becoming the industry norm. Say your dog weighs 25 lbs, you should be administering 5 mg of CBD oil.
You’ll also need to calculate how much CBD oil your dog should be getting based on how many milligrams of CBD is in each millilitre of oil.
Common Dosage Formulas
For the same 25-lb dog who gets 5mg of CBD, you could give it 2 ml of the 75 mg, 1 ml of the 150mg, and 0.5 ml of the 300 mg compound. Morgan claims to give your dog one serving of CBD per day before gradually increasing the frequency over time.
It’s always recommended to err on the side of caution when it comes to dosage, especially early on in both the owners’ and the dog’s discovering of the compound. As aforementioned, overdosing on CBD is impossible but that’s not a reason to recklessly administer it. Because dogs are so loyal, they’ll trust you and anything you’re incorporating into their diet. With that said, you’re going to need to ensure that you’ve done your due diligence and research in terms of the proper dosage before making CBD part of your dog’s everyday life.
