Cannabis for Kitty?

A relative of mine has a 21 year old cat that has had some issues with vomiting and weight loss. For a cat of that age, I wasn't surprised about the weight loss and attributed the vomiting to developing a sensitive stomach. I hadn't seen his cat for a while and was surprised when I saw him as he had re-gained his lost weight and had pretty much stopped vomiting.

   When I asked what he had done to reverse the weight loss he was somewhat reluctant to tell me, but finally admitted to giving his cat a small amount of cannabis, in the form of butter. He indicated that somehow the active ingredients were dissolved into the butter (because it isn't water soluble) and he gave his cat a small amount at his wet food feedings. I asked him about any side effects, but he said he didn't notice anything unusual other than his cat enjoyed snuggling a little more...and ate a lot more without vomiting.

   Has anyone else heard of something like this? I don't want to get into a war on ethics, but I wanted to know if this all natural treatment had any merit? His vet said he didn't know of anyone treating their cat with cannabis, but said that the cat seemed fine and there weren't any known problems with cats and cannabis that he knew of. All of my cats seem to be fine without needing any types of treatment, but my oldest cat (17-18) is starting to get old age skinny. I saw some people are recommending Remeron to increase a cat's appetite, with Remeron being a treatment for depression with the increased appetite being a side effect. I don't know which way to go...Remeron with it's long list of side effects, or Cannabis.

  Anyone have any experience? My relative didn't want to blow smoke at his cat (which I guess didn't like smoke to begin with) so he decided on using butter since his cat loves to sneak a few licks of butter when he can get away with it. I'm told that the butter is fairly low strength when it is made to avoid getting his cat too crazy. In my opinion, his cat looks a lot more robust than before he started his treatment...at least it didn't look nearly as skinny/emaciated as it was getting.

I think I'd be very cautious (and I speak as someone who wishes medicinal usage of cannabis was legal over here). The point is, there's no way of being certain how strong or weak an individual plant is in both the therapeutic elements and the less desirable substances. Also, little to nothing is known about how cannabis can effect cats. Just because it helped your friend's cat, it doesn't mean it will help yours - especially when there are a myriad of conditions that can cause nausea and lack of appetite.

I understand your concerns about Remeron side effects, but I don't think there's any guarantee that cannabis would work any better. As a first step, I'd be discussing vitamin B12 injections with your vet. They made a huge impact on Cali's (rip) appetite when he was struggling. My first step would always be to investigate that route before medication.

There have been a couple of threads on the subject, e.g., this one or this There's also a hemp supplement that supposedly has the benefits of cannabis without the high.

Having smoked the odd joint and eaten Cannabis cookies in my youth I would have thought it was way to strong for a cat even in a small dose.

The cookies I ate pinned me to the chair for about three hours , I dread to think what butter cannabis could do , I know taking cannabis orally can give you a longer hit.

Cats Just say no to street DRUGS