VETS SEE MORE DOGS SNARFING HUMANS' MEDICAL POT

Consuming the Drug Can Be Harmful but Rarely Fatal

Some veterinarians in Durango have seen a spike in the number of dogs
poisoned by marijuana since the proliferation of medical marijuana
dispensaries made the drug more accessible.

"We used to see maybe one case a year," said Stacee Santi, a
veterinarian at Riverview Animal Hospital. "Now we're seeing a couple
a month."

Dogs can be exposed to marijuana through smoke or eating
cannabis-laced foodstuffs.

Recently, a large-breed dog was brought to the hospital stumbling,
dribbling urine and exhibiting the classic symptoms of dilated eyes
and slow heart beat, Santi said.

"We induced vomiting, and up came a 3-by-3-foot piece of cheesecloth,"
Santi said. "The cheesecloth could have been used to strain marijuana
butter."

The butter, once infused with cannabis, can be used to make baked
goods such as brownies.

Jennifer Schoedler, a veterinarian at Alpine Animal Hospital, has seen
incidents of dogs getting into marijuana since she came to Durango in
1998.

"Dogs love the stuff," Schoedler said. "I've seen them eat the buds,
plants, joints and marijuana in food."

Just as the caffeine and theobromine in chocolate are safe to humans
but poisonous to dogs, so is marijuana, Schoedler said. The darker the
chocolate, the more pronounced the toxicity can be.

The level of intoxication varies according to the size of the dog and
concentration of marijuana, she said. It almost always requires a stay
in the hospital, she said.

Eric Barchas, a veterinarian in San Francisco, says on his website
that he treats "stoned dogs" on a regular basis.

"Serious, long-term health consequences and fatality from marijuana
intoxication are essentially unheard of," Barchas writes on his site.
"However, pets that are exposed to marijuana may display anxiety and
are prone to 'bad trips.' They may lack the coordination to consume
food and water."

Makenzie Rennick at Durango Animal Hospital said the clinic hasn't
seen any marijuana-ingesting dogs recently but had four or five during
the summer.

"We don't know where they got the marijuana," Rennick said. "It could
have been where they live or someplace else in the
neighborhood."

Other prescription and over-the-counter medications also are a threat
to pets. The American Veterinary Medicine Association and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have joined forces to prevent
pets from ingesting household medicines and to keep out-of-date or
unwanted medicines out of waterways,

The effort aims to educate people about proper storage and disposal of
medicines. The animal poison control center of the Association for the
Protection of Cruelty to Animals reports that medicine for humans was
the leading cause of toxicity in pets in 2010.