CBD is helping cats around the country find relief from anxiety, arthritis, inflammation, stress, and more. Is your cat a grumpy cat? CBD for cats might be the way to restore your feline’s inner kitten!
Is your cat grumpy, irritable, or moody? Or maybe your feline friend just doesn’t show you the same love as it used to when it was a spry and curious kitten. As it turns out, your cat may not just be a fan of America’s favorite grumpy cat. Your cat might be swat-happy and hissy because of a medical condition such as intestinal inflammation, anxiety, or arthritis.
Luckily, CBD may be an effective remedy for these problems and others. Thousands have reported improved mood and mobility from their cats after just one dose of CBD. So, how does it work, what does it do, and how can you get some? Find out in this guide to CBD for cats.
Moody, Antisocial Cats = Suffering Cats
If your cat isn’t cuddling up with you on the couch and purring with joy when you come home, it might mean it’s suffering. Contrary to popular belief, cats actually crave love and human attention. In a recent study, healthy cats chose to be with humans over every other available option—even food!
“That’s not true! My cat’s always been like this. He’s just a meanie (but I love him <3).”
If this thought crossed your mind, you may be right. But, it’s more likely that your cat is acting out because of illness or discomfort. Just take a look at these statistics:
As you can see, if you have a moody, antisocial, or aggressive cat, it’s HIGHLY LIKELY that they are suffering from a condition that is decreasing their quality of life.
Do we have your attention now, or do we need to get the laser pointer?
How CBD Can Help Your Cat
If the above statistics scared you more than a lone cucumber sitting menacingly on the floor, you can take a deep breath. Just a few drops of CBD oil can do wonders for your cat’s quality of life. Before we tell you how, let’s take a quick look at what CBD is.
What is CBD?
CBD is short for cannabidiol, a chemical compound that comes from the cannabis plant. Many studies on humans and animals have shown that this compound has the potential to provide relief from a variety of conditions ranging from mild pain to epilepsy. Anecdotal evidence suggests that cats enjoy many of the same benefits.
CBD is extracted from 100% legal industrial hemp and can be eaten, inhaled, absorbed through the skin, or taken in pill form. CBD for cats usually comes in the form of edible treats or oil that can be added to food or water using a dropper.
NOTE: CBD is legal and it cannot get your cat high. THC is the mind-altering component in cannabis. It’s completely different from CBD.
How Does CBD Work on My Cat?
CBD is an all-natural compound that delivers its many benefits via the body’s endocannabinoid system. This vital system, much like the circulatory, nervous, and muscular systems we’re all familiar with, is responsible for a host of regulatory functions that keep your cat in a balanced state of health.
An overactive or underactive endocannabinoid system can wreak havoc on the body. Just some of the consequences include inflammation, skin irritation, insomnia, anxiety, and depression. Giving your cat CBD fuels this system and allows it to do its job better than ever.
Not only that, but CBD also interacts with a number of other receptors in the brain, gut, and vital organs that help it to relieve pain, inflammation, and stress without any serious side effects.
The medical and veterinary communities are abuzz about the potential for CBD to relieve many conditions for humans and animals. More research is being done every day, but as of now, CBD is considered a safe, natural, and affordable way to relieve the most common feline afflictions.
The Benefits of CBD for Cats
If your cat suffers from any of the following symptoms, CBD may help.
Stress and Anxiety
Every cat owner knows that when something’s wrong with a cat, it lets you know. Whether it’s by dragging litter through the house, doing its business on the carpet, or scratching up your sofa, it has ways of getting your attention.
But what if the vet can’t find anything wrong?
If you’re stumped as to what’s making your cat act out, it may be suffering from stress, anxiety, or depression. There are many reasons that cats develop these disorders. Some of the most common include territorial issues in your neighborhood, loneliness, a recent move, or someone moving in or out of your house.
One of the most widely reported benefits of CBD for cats is that it calms them down, makes them less skittish, and decreases stress. When a cat is able to rest and feel relaxed in its own home, its mood and quality of life improve almost instantly.
Pain and Inflammation (including Arthritis)
Elder cats suffer from pain just like aging humans do. But issues related to aging, inflammation, and pain can start at just 5 years old for cats. This means that many cats suffer silently for years until they start showing physical signs of pain such as slowed movements and difficulty getting up.
The signs of pain that are often misinterpreted are moodiness, biting, changes in appetite, excessive meowing, and even purring for attention. Many of these cats are labeled as quirky or grumpy, but in reality, they are suffering.
CBD has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects similar to those of pain medication (but without the negative side effects). By decreasing inflammation, tension in the joints and muscles melts away. Many cat owners report that their pets started moving as if they were years younger after taking CBD.
Digestive Issues
Some of the most common problems for cats include inflammation of the intestine and stomach. These issues are much worse for overweight cats. Those of us who have dealt with constant diet changes or trying to get our cats to eat more slowly know how tough it can be to get these issues under control.
Studies have shown CBD to be effective in treating intestinal issues in humans, and it is believed to have the same effect on cats. CBD actually binds with receptors located in the intestine and restores it to a proper, healthy state.
Is going a whole week without cleaning up cat puke a seemingly impossible dream? CBD may be your carpets’ new best friend.
Nausea and Loss of Appetite
Nausea and loss of appetite are often related to digestive issues, but they can also be caused by other conditions like stress. Nausea can make your cat incredibly uncomfortable and angry, and feline anorexia is a dangerous condition that can have serious consequences if untreated.
CBD helps these conditions on multiple fronts. It is an effective anti-nausea treatment and appetite stimulant, and it also works to fix the underlying causes of these symptoms, whether they be stress, anxiety, or inflammation-related.
Nausea and loss of appetite are also common side effects of cancer treatment for cats. CBD can be an effective and natural way to make the road to a cancer-free cat much more bearable.
Skin Irritation
Skin conditions such as mange and acne are relatively common in cats. Because they don’t have exfoliating soaps and scrubs, access to spas, or fingers to clear away the nasty buildups under the skin, these conditions can lead to a lot of discomfort and even infection.
When your cat gets a rash or an itchy spot, it will try to bite it and scratch it, which can open wounds and make the problem much worse.
CBD helps to control the levels of oil on your cat’s skin as well as inflammation that causes rashes. Not only will this help your cat’s skin stay strong and healthy, but it will also keep their coat clean and vibrant.
Seizures
Seizures are dangerous and terrifying for cats as well as heartbreaking for owners to witness. Luckily, CBD may help to cut seizure out of your cat’s life entirely.
CBD’s antiepileptic properties are some of its most widely-accepted benefits. The FDA has even approved an antiepileptic prescription drug containing CBD for sale in the US. This drug is for humans, but dog and cat owners have reported that CBD is extremely effective on their epileptic pets too.
Some pet’s seizures all but stopped completely even after they’d been suffering from multiple attacks a day. Whether your cat has seizures often or as rarely as once every few months, CBD has potential as an effective, natural, and inexpensive treatment.
The Side Effects of CBD for Cats
There are no reported serious side effects of CBD for cats. In fact, there are very few side effects at all. Some owners report their cat being a bit drowsy or tired, but this is likely an indication that the cat has been given a dose that’s a bit too big (we’ll talk about dosage in a minute).
CBD has an invigorating effect at normal doses but can make cats sleepy in large doses. Luckily, there’s no evidence that giving your cat too much CBD will cause any harm.
All cats are different, so pay attention to how your cat reacts to determine the right dosage, and make sure never to give your cat CBD or any other supplement or treatment without talking to your vet first.
CBD Dosage for Your Cat
Determining the right CBD dosage for your cat will depend on its condition. For overall wellness, we recommend giving your cat 1 mg of CBD per 10 lbs of body weight.
For more specific conditions, consult the following table:
Condition | Amount of CBD per 10 lbs | Doses per day |
|---|---|---|
Anxiety | 1 mg | 2 |
Arthritis | 2.5 mg | 2 |
Inflammatory Bowel Disease | 1 mg | 2 |
Seizures | 2.5 mg – 15 mg | 2 |
Nausea | 1 mg | 2 |
Asthma | 2.5 mg | 2 |
We recommend giving your cat CBD with food, as this has been shown to improve the rate of absorption into the body.
If you’d like to treat a feline skin condition with CBD, you can do so by applying CBD oil topically. Just drop a bit of the oil onto the affected area and rub it in with your fingers or a small brush. Try not to use a towel, as this will absorb most of the oil. Also, do not apply CBD oil to any open wounds.
IMPORTANT: Read this BEFORE You Buy CBD for Your Cat
Make sure that the CBD oil you purchase for your cat is made from real hemp. Some CBD products contain synthetic additives that can have unintended side effects.
More importantly, it’s crucial to be sure the CBD oil you purchase does not contain THC (the psychoactive component of cannabis). THC will make your cat feel much worse, not better.
You can find out the THC content of CBD by taking a look at 3rd party lab results provided by the CBD manufacturer. These lab results are usually located front and center on a company’s website, and they are easy to read.
If you can’t find a company’s lab results, this is a sign that you should not buy CBD from them.
How to Buy CBD for Cats
There are plenty of shops and websites selling CBD, and many offer a variety of pet treats and oils that cats love.
But, before you fill your shopping cart, you need to do two things:
To Find a Reliable CBD Producer, You Must:
Remember that buying inexpensive CBD doesn’t always mean you’re getting a deal! The purest and most effective CBD takes time to grow and process, but the effects are much more profound.
To ensure you’re getting the best quality CBD for your cat, choose one of the companies we’ve reviewed on this site. We’ve done the research and testing so you don’t have to!
Purrr-fect Relief
If your cat doesn’t have the same curious, cute, and cuddly personality as it did during kittenhood, it might mean that something is preventing it from thriving. CBD has the unique ability to tackle a number of common issues that plague aging cats. If you’re ready to get your feline friend back to a purrr-fect state of health, try CBD for cats today.