Medical Cannabis Can Cure Your Pets’ Pain, ITBP Study Shows

| Updated: 04 June, 2022 9:51 pm IST

NEW DELHI: In an endeavour to give relief to the civilian animals suffering from excruciating pain, for the first time in India Indo Tibetan Border Force (ITPB) has come up with a therapeutic option in its first clinical paper on the use of medical cannabis on dogs in India.

The study, initiated by ITBP, emphasises the usage of certain kinds of drugs to heal the range of inflammatory conditions causing pain to our pets.

Four labrador dogs, between six to eight years old, suffering from acute immobility issues were chosen for the study from January 2021 to June 2022. Significant improvements were visible in just seven days and these dogs could be seen walking without pain. The dogs who otherwise preferred lying in one particular position also showed a desire to go outside.

Talking to The New Indian, Dr Sudhakar Natarajan, Deputy Inspector General (Vet), ITBP said, “It is one of the pioneering works in India on dogs using full-spectrum medical cannabis to mitigate long-term pain and improve the quality of life.”

“I wanted some solution for long-term pain management. This is a study done at the field level. We hope it’s taken up by veterinary research institutions to investigate further into the therapeutic effect.”

Dr Natarajan said, “This is the first clinical study on the use of phytocannabinoids in dogs in India and has shown encouraging results. The dogs on 0.16mg/kg/body for 30 days showed marked relief from osteoarthritis and hip dysplasia pain and inflammation.”

However, the paper also said that cannabis, which is being given to dogs as a measure to ease the excruciating suffering, “has to be used very carefully on dogs as they are more sensitive to the effects of THC than humans”.

While in several Western countries the use of medical cannabis to treat suffering pets is prevalent, it is not the case in India.

“It’s time we should take veterinary medicine seriously. The breakthroughs of veterinary medicines should serve as capacity building measures for field veterinarians and should not remain in research papers,” Gauri Maulekhi, Trustee, People For Animals, said.

While speaking on street dogs and the negligence shown toward them, Maulekhi said, “Currently the law allows only ‘Animal birth control’ to happen. The government is liable to establish infirmaries for animals per district but that is not happening as of yet.”