From CBD oil tinctures to infused bath bombs and smoothies, CBD is taking over the health and wellness niche on multiple levels. Now there’s even CBD for pets which can be life-changing for some animals.
Until recently, Blake Armstrong was just a regular pet owner. But when his family dog Rosie was diagnosed with cancer, that all changed. Desperate to find something to help Rosie cope, Blake eventually tried CBD. And it changed his dog’s life.
Read on to learn more about Blake, his story, and how CBD is revolutionizing the way pet owners care for their animals.
Source: Food Industry Executive
Meet Blake Armstrong
“I’ve grown up with animals all my life, and I couldn’t imagine life without them,” says Blake. “Up until now, I was just your regular pet owner.”
However, that all changed after a visit to the vet where Blake’s dog Rosie was diagnosed with cancer.
“As you can imagine we were devastated,” he says. After the routine checks following such a diagnosis, Blake’s vets made one thing very clear; there was no way to save Rosie. Instead, Blake and his wife were encouraged to take advantage of the relatively early diagnosis and get a head start on helping maximize Rosie’s quality of life.
“Our vets were really helpful. They helped my wife and I understand Rosie’s condition, how it was likely to affect her in the future, and what we could do now to prepare for what was coming,” says Blake.
And for a while, Rosie was doing very well. Gradually, however, that changed; her cancer started to progress, and her symptoms naturally got worse.
“We noticed subtle changes at first,” says Blake. “Rosie had hip dysplasia from when she was young, the symptoms of which gradually started causing her more trouble. She also started having some pain,” he says.
Source: Stuff.co.nz
Over time, however, things got even worse. Rosie’s mobility really started to decline, and her appetite started to fade, too. To any pet owner, this is a big cause for concern. Blake and his wife were desperately working with their vets to find supplements and medicines that could help Rosie deal with her declining health.
“We tried a lot of things with Rosie, from glucosamine to help strengthen her hip to omega-3 fatty acids, immune supporters, and much more,” says Blake. “Some of these things worked better than others.”
Eventually, Rosie’s condition hit rock bottom. By this stage, she was really lethargic and barely eating. She started to lose weight and was in a lot of pain, which only made her less willing to move.
“Rosie was always really active and energetic. She loved going on walks and playing outside, and she always had a strong appetite. Seeing her completely changed due to her illness was really hard for me and my family, especially because we were running out of options to try and help her feel better,” says Blake.
While looking for new supplements and medications to try with Rosie, Blake and his wife discovered that pet owners were using CBD with their animals. And while they knew that hemp and cannabis were showing a lot of promise as medicines, they didn’t know that these benefits extended to animals, too.
“CBD Helped Me Get My Rosie Back”
“To be honest, I was pretty skeptical at first,” says Blake. “I wasn’t sold on the idea of giving my dog pot. Nonetheless, given our situation, I put my suspicions aside and started researching hemp and CBD, what they were, and how they worked,” says Blake.
Source: Lola Hemp
And that’s when he realized that CBD wasn’t just “weed for pets.” CBD is a compound found in cannabis plants, but it doesn’t cause that psychedelic “high” we associate with the plant. In fact, CBD is often sourced from hemp, a form of cannabis bred to contain extremely low concentrations of THC (the compound that gives cannabis its intoxicating effect).
Blake and his wife also learned that, much like humans, dogs have an endocannabinoid system. The health benefits of cannabis-derived products come from their ability to interact with this system, which plays a key role in regulating all kinds of different bodily processes.
“The endocannabinoid system is involved in managing everything from mood and memory to pain and inflammation, immune response, and much more,” says Blake. “Once we started understanding the science behind this stuff and discovered that there was some really solid research to show that CBD has real health benefits, my wife and I decided to give it a shot.”
And that moment proved to be a turning point for Rosie. After just a few weeks on CBD, Rosie’s condition started to improve; she regained her appetite and mobility, her pain decreased, and she became a lot more active. “Day by day, Rosie was seeming a bit more like her old self,” says Blake.
Every Pet Owner in the World Needs to Know About CBD for Pets
“After seeing what CBD did for Rosie, I felt like every pet owner on the planet should know about this stuff,” says Blake.
And so, he started cannabissupplementsforpets.com, a website where he publishes in-depth information about CBD and how it works for pets and reviews specific pet CBD products.
Source: WikiLeaks
“Rosie’s diagnosis really opened me up to a world of products and options that I wish I knew about earlier. Today, there are all kinds of CBD products specially designed for pets, including everything from tinctures to infused-treats like peanut butter. Unfortunately, very few pet owners actually know about CBD and what will work for their pet and what won’t,” says Blake.
That’s where he hopes his website will help. Blake publishes content looking at how CBD affects specific illnesses and dog breeds, simplifying the jargon of clinical trials and studies into detailed articles that everyday pet owners can understand. He also reviews a handful of products and helps pet owners identify what to look for when purchasing CBD for their animals.
Eventually, Blake and his family lost Rosie to her cancer. “And that’s ok,” he says. “We never went into this expecting to find some kind of miracle cure. We just wanted something that could alleviate Rosie’s symptoms and help us reconnect with her in her final time with us. And that’s exactly what we got.”
Source: Insider
For more information about CBD, its health benefits for pets, and Blake’s story, visit his website; CannabisSupplementsForPets.com.
