Legalized cannabis is having a large effect on Canada’s canines as veterinarian clinics across the country are seeing significant increases in the number of dogs being brought in stoned on pot products.

Wobbly, shrinking from light and sound and often incontinent and howling, the animals are being rushed in for treatment after scarfing pot-laced brownies and other unattended edibles or after being given medicinal marijuana by their owners.

“We are absolutely seeing an increase,” says Dr. Ian Sandler, a member of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association’s national issues committee.

“And this is all over Canada,” says Sandler, who is also CEO of Toronto’s Grey Wolf Animal Health.

He says anecdotal tales from many Canadian vets have pointed to a large increase in the number of dogs being treated for cannabis emergencies.

But he also points to a report released in August by a Minnesota-based pet poison help line that showed a significant uptick in the number of Canadian owners calling in for advice with pot-related emergencies — 90 per cent of which involved stoned dogs.

Only 64 Canadian cases were recorded by the centre in all of 2018, while 54 were reported in the first seven months of 2019 alone.

“So this is not just anecdotal, now we actually have the evidence to show there’s a significant increase in inappropriate ingestion primarily amongst dogs,” Sandler says.

While overall numbers are not yet available, a recent survey by the Star of some of the country’s largest mental health and emergency centres showed no corresponding increase in the number of human cases being reported since last October’s legalization kicked in.

“It’s certainly something that we’re very concerned about and want to be watching for,” Robert Mann, a senior scientist and impairment expert at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health said.

“But I’ve heard nothing — no indication that there’s all of a sudden a large increase.”

Sandler, however, says he’s seen a greater number of cannabis canine cases in his own Front St. E. practice since October.

“We’ve seen an increase in mainly mild cases, thank goodness, but we’ve seen an increase in some more severe cases,” he says.

Dr. Jory Bocknek, an Aurora veterinarian, says the increase in the number of cannabis cases he’s seen has been “monumental” in its scope.

“It’s gone from something that was exceptionally rare to something that is common,” says Bocknek, who practises at the Abbotsford Animal Hospital north of Toronto.

“It’s not even subtle,” he says.

Bocknek says many of the overdoses likely originate in the backpacks of high schoolers who hide their stashes there only to have their pets fish it out.

Sandler says many of the emergencies transpire from well-meaning owners medicating their sore or anxious animals with medicinal marijuana that may contain levels of the plant’s psychoactive THC component that overwhelm their dog’s inexperienced brains.

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More dangerous, however, are the incidents where the animals swipe neglected backed goods which are often heavy in chocolate, macadamia nuts and other ingredients that can be toxic to dogs and cats, he says.

“So suddenly you have really almost like a toxic carrier for the cannabis,” Sandler says.

“Being very, very high on these THC products in conjunction with some compounds that can be deadly — especially chocolate — to animals, that’s the issue.”

Sandler says some dogs also appear to be attracted to the smell of cannabis and that there have been a number of cases where the pooches have sniffed out and eaten the discarded ends of joints during their walks.

Cats, which are often house bound, can be susceptible to second-hand pot smoke if their owners choose to spark up inside, he adds.

As with humans, cannabis overdoses — free of chocolate and other condiment considerations — will rarely prove fatal to dogs or cats.

And like humans as well, treatment for stoned pets typically starts with the inducement of vomiting, Sandler says. The animals, usually hospitalized, are then often monitored for temperature and given fluid therapies when called for.

To stem the stoned pet onslaught, Sandler says his association would like animal warnings added to legal products, urging owners to remember their pets and store any edible products safely out of rover’s reach. Such warnings will become even more urgent when the legal edibles market opens at the end of the year, he says.

He says his association would also like to see the federal government grant vets the ability to issue or recommend cannabis-based remedies, something they are currently unable to do.

“Right now there’s not a legal pathway for pet owners to actually obtain cannabis for their pets,” Sandler says.

“So … people are sort of trying to self-medicate their pets.”