Elvis is our eleven-and-a-half year old bulldog; we brought him and his sister Gracie home when he was twelve weeks old. He has been in excellent health his entire life, with the exception early on when he suffered from eye infections regularly, which were eliminated when he had an eyelid surgery for entropion, where the eyelids can fold into the eye, causing quite an irritation to the eyeball. See https://pets.thenest.com/entropion-surgery-bulldogs-5442.html for more on that…
Elvis has been properly fed and his daily intake includes various nutrients to maintain his health that were “prescribed” by a veterinarian dietitian, and at his age, was examined recently and determined to be in excellent health. He has a one-and-a-half year old “grand-daughter”, Lola, that we brought home about two months after Elvis’s sister Gracie passed away just before her tenth birthday from pancreatic complications.
We moved from a suburban home in North Carolina to a high rise in the NYC metro area in late 2019, at about the same time we decided with our vet that Elvis would be more comfortable if he received some kind of medication for pain, primarily joint and muscular aches and pains from his age; likely osteoarthritis: he was put on carprofen, an NSIAD, which seemed to help somewhat, but I was concerned about the long term effects of that drug after further research, and as he seemed to be experiencing what I would call “grouchiness” on a regular basis after two months on the drug, a side effect that has been noted in some dogs using carprofen. See https://www.innovetpet.com/blogs/medications/carprofen-side-effects-for-dogs .
Prior to the carprofen, Elvis would become aggressive towards Lola occasionally, seemingly for no reason, maybe once a week or less. Now, as noted, his life changed quite a bit due to the relocation, but we had been in our high-rise for a month or so when his aggressiveness started to occur on a much more regular basis, at about a month into the new therapy, and near the end of the experiment with carprofen, he would get crazy mean with Lola almost once a day. It was at that point when we were coming near the end of his prescription that I decided to do some online research on the effects of CBD on dogs, and read the Cornell research report. see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6065210/
With that information, I decided to try CBD with Elvis, when his carprofen prescription was running out.
Based on the Cornell report, I decided to try Elvis (at 62 lbs) on ten drops of CBD oil twice a day (HEMP GARDEN Broad Spectrum CBD Pet Tincture, 10 mg per ml). At mealtime, I administer the ten drops onto his food, along with his normal nutrients. (His appetite and “daily routine” has not changed.) We are now into his fifth week of CBD therapy.
During the first week, I didn’t notice much change. But as we got into the second week, I noticed that he was much more active around the apartment, and was more “ready” to go out for walks – he’d get up as soon as he heard me opening the closet door where his harness is kept. Additionally, his tendency to go off on Lola diminished, and has only happened twice in the past four weeks, when it was happening almost every day.
So, anecdotally, the CBD treatment seems to have positively surpassed the carprofen therapy in Elvis’s demeanor and level of physical pain, and for certain for a bulldog he is much more active during the day, relaxed at night, and willing to get up and move around at any time of the day, including early mornings when he used to stay put in his bed until it was time to go out, than during the carprofen trial.
As to long term effects, the Cornell study showed a slight change in ALP, a liver enzyme, but it did not conclude that the change was great enough to be detrimental, however and even so, I am personally much more interested at Elvis’s age, a year-and-a-half beyond the normal life expectancy of bulldogs, that he live the rest of his life with less of the discomforts of old age, which the CBD therapy seems to be providing. I will notify our vet of the CBD treatment and ask that he check his ALP during Elvis’s next physical. Given his prior activity level and his current, I am quite happy that we’ve added CBD to his daily regimen.
If anything changes, I’ll update this blog.
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