How to choose a CBD product for your horse
Don't even consider a product that is not manufactured under Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) or does not have third-party laboratory certificates of analysis available for each batch of oil. When choosing among “approved” CBD products, evaluate how “user-friendly” the product and company are. Do they have a proven track record – and do they have animal expertise? Several studies testing commercially available CBD products found that many did not offer the dosage they claimed, and a surprisingly high percentage was simply hemp cooking oil.
The best companies will have money-back guarantees on their products and be able to answer your questions about the source of their biomass and the extraction process. Good products can be made using ethanol or CO2 extraction; However, be careful with incomplete extractions of poor quality. CBD oil should have a light herbal aroma and flavor and not taste like chemical residue.
For horses, look for a high potency product, between 20 mg/mL and 60 mg/mL. Many hemp products are sold in 1 oz bottles due to their high cost. A 1 oz bottle of 20 mg/mL CBD contains 30 mL and will potentially give you 30 horse-sized servings if your equine partner responds to the lower dose. Higher wattages provide more opportunity for experimentation to find the “sweet spot” for your horse.
For example, a dose of 50 mg was more reliable and effective for severe lameness, mild to moderate acute laminitis, and equine metabolic syndrome. Surprisingly, although most CBD products are recommended for twice-daily administration, some horses whose owners could only reach them once a day still responded well.
Will my horse get high from CBD?
Used medicinally for thousands of years, the cannabis plant has two main compounds and over 200 minor constituents. The most abundant compounds are THC (trans-Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol) and cannabidiol .
THC is the part of the cannabis plant used recreationally and is associated with stoner culture. However, THC is also a very effective medicine for chronic pain, psychiatric disorders, and cancer of many types. THC is psychoactive in humans and particularly in dogs, which have high numbers of CB1 receptors in their cerebellum, but little is known about its effect in other species.
In contrast, CBD does not have profound psychoactive effects and, at low doses, is very effective in calming the nervous system without affecting cognition or balance.
How do phytocannabinoids work?
The endocannabinoid system (ECS) helps the nervous and immune systems self-regulate and communicate. Acting mainly at nerve synapses, the ECS is believed to be involved in pain relief, the fight against cancer, metabolic balance and the proper functioning of the gastrointestinal system.
It looks like a miracle drug! This may be because receptors that bind to phytocannabinoids (cannabinoids that occur naturally in the cannabis plant) can intervene early in inflammatory cascades and prevent degenerative changes that cause health problems.
A limited amount of clinical research is available on the use of CBD in animals, due to a decades-long research standstill. But recent studies have shown that CBD shows great promise in helping some very common problems in horses and dogs, like behavioral problems related to anxiety and arthritis pain.
For more serious conditions, such as cancer, epilepsy and diabetes, animal caregivers should seek advice from a competent veterinarian before embarking on the use of high-dose cannabinoids.
The only side effect observed when using CBD in pets has been a slight elevation of liver enzymes. This side effect appeared in research studies using very high doses – eight to 16 times the levels that competent veterinarians would prescribe for dogs. This suggests that many pets can achieve pain relief without the problems commonly encountered with NSAID use, such as gastrointestinal distress or liver damage, when CBD is prescribed in appropriate doses. But how does this translate to horses?
Why does the size of the animal matter?
The animals are all different sizes. However, when it comes to medications and supplements, doses do not scale at the same rate as animal size increases. This is because larger animals have slower metabolisms than smaller ones.
healthy cat 's heart rate the resting heart rate of an adult human is only 70 to 80 beats per minute; and a typical equine heart rate is only 30 to 35 beats per minute. With its slower metabolism, a horse can function more efficiently and use less energy to move.
This means that the “by weight” dosage of many medications can be much lower for horses than for humans, cats or dogs. For example, while the dose of CBD for anxiety relief in dogs is around 0.1 mg per kg of body weight, research has shown that a dose of just 25 mg of full-spectrum CBD oil Complete, rubbed onto the gums, helps similar problems in horses – which works at just 0.05 mg/kg.
This means that using CBD can be surprisingly affordable to help soothe a horse's nervous system.
Can I use CBD in competition?
The answer is no. Cannabinoids are not permitted during competitions and have been added to random drug testing programs. This ban is actually an early indicator of the potency of CBD for behavioral and pain issues in horses. So if you are competing in shows that drug test, you will need to stop giving your horse CBD seven days before the event at least.
