Let the Fur Fly: The Great Debate on CBD for Cats, and Why It’s Exactly What Your Feline Needs

Let’s Talk About Cat Purroblems

Like many of your pets, I’ve had my lion’s share of health issues.  Life is full of risks, especially when you’re talking about health.  Sickness, injury, disease, they’re almost unavoidable.  Even cats have trouble landing back on their feet (when it comes to health of course, we ALWAYS land on our actual feed).  These health problems can scurry about within the walls of your body, gnawing on all the important wires, getting into rooms they’re not supposed, and they steal little bits of what doesn’t belong to them: your health, your time, your life.

It may sound like I’m talking about mice, and you wouldn’t be wrong.  Just like those troublesome vermin, injury and illness can be tough to pounce on… but you can outsmart them if you think like a cat 😉

My human didn’t like watching me struggle, especially at such a young age, but he was also wary of upsetting my system even further with more medications.  I felt too sick to just “patiently wait it out”, but I was also too sensitive and weak to be able to handle another round of medications.  I was like a mouse, caught between a cat and a corner (geez, what a role reversal!).

So what did we do?

Don’t worry, I’ll explain all that later on in this cat’s tale.  I wanted to take a moment to say that I don’t blame my human for hesitating.  Health is individual – what works for some might not have the same effects for others.  I shouldn’t have had so many reactions to the medicine that was supposed to help me, but as I said: I’m a one-of-a-kind cat.  It took some time, but like any good hunter, my human was patient and eventually he pounced on the problem.

I love my human, and I think he’s the cat’s-pajamas.  Since I don’t have a picture of him – because I’m a cat, I don’t own a camera – here’s a picture of me, a cat, laying on his pajamas:

… And Then There Was CBD!

I mentioned that I was going to explain how my human and I figured out how to remedy my worsening conditions.  The answer is simple, and it’s only three letters: CBD.  I used to think that this was an acronym for “Cats = Better (than) Dogs”, but it turns out that the ‘Cannabidiol’ stuff that my human took for himself was also a life-changing remedy for me!  One of my human’s co-workers came over after work one day, and upon hearing of my health issues she enlightened my human that CBD is great for people and their pets.  “Don’t you already use CBD? Why don’t you just do the same for little Obi?!” she said.  My human looked at her like a cat looks at a tub filled with water: “That stuff is safe for animals too?!” he said while scratching his head in disbelief.

We didn’t realize it at the time, but my human and I had just crossed one of the major thresholds in our journey towards better health.  CBD is often thought of as a semi-mystical, forbidden herbal medicine that does not have enough research to back it up.  Diving even further into the matter, CBD is simply not even considered as an option by many pets or their humans.  This could be due to the fact that it was only recently Federally legalized.  Cannabidiol is not a novel healing concept – it has been widely used for many years, in many different countries.  CBD does come from illicit crops such as cannabis, but it is also found in Hemp – a plant that the U.S. Federal Government made legal in December 2018.  The Hemp Farming Act was passed late last year, and in so doing removed Hemp from the Schedule I of Controlled Substances and made Hemp a legal, agricultural commodity.

CBD Is Not the Same As THC: It’s Safe for Me And Even for You!

CBD is non-psychoactive, can be included in any diet for any cat, and as long as it’s dosed properly it can be side-effect free.  One of the best parts of using hemp-derived Cannabidiol is that it has little-to-no THC in it.  Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is one of the main causes of the “high” or psychoactive experiences that is associated with cannabis consumption.  As a result, the U.S. Federal Government recognized the benefits of Hemp as a source for CBD, without the negative connotations surrounding cannabis and its potential for high-THC concentrations.

We cats like to perch up high and look down on all you other forms of life, and we occasionally get “wide eyed” with some catnip.  However, cats should not be “getting high” from their medicine.  Hemp CBD can be isolated on its own so that your feline doesn’t  feel the effects, but even when THC is present – such as in a full-spectrum CBD product – Cannabidiol works to negate the psychoactive properties associated with Tetrahydrocannabinol.

CBD Has This Kitty ‘Feline Fine’

As I mentioned, I used to have quite an a-paw-ling list of conditions that affected my quality of life.  My insides were all out of sorts, which caused my skin to become itchy and inflamed, all resulting in a lot of stress and anxiety.  Each symptom seemed to exacerbate the others and I found myself caught in an endless loop (like a “dog chasing its tail”, yikes!).