Can dogs get high? Yes. Should they be? Absolutely not. Here’s what to do if your pet got into your stash.
It happens. You’re a responsible adult who keeps their cannabis in a reasonable place…except the one time you didn’t, and now your dog is wobbling around the apartment like they just stepped off a carnival ride, staring at the wall with an expression you’ve never seen before. Or maybe your cat found the corner of a gummy that fell behind the couch. Or someone at a party left something out. Either way, your pet ate weed.
No judgment. Cannabis toxicity cases in pets have increased 765% in recent years, according to the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center – a spike that tracks almost perfectly with state-by-state legalization. In fact, the Pet Poison Helpline handled over 6,800 cases in 2021 alone. This is genuinely common, and fortunately, the recovery rate with proper care is 98%.
Here’s exactly what to do, what not to do, and when to stop reading this and call the vet.
Can Dogs and Cats Actually Get High?
Yes, and not in a fun way. Dogs and cats have endocannabinoid systems just like we do, with CB1 and CB2 receptors throughout their nervous systems. However, there are a few critical differences that make THC dramatically more dangerous for them when a pet eats weed.
Why their bodies react differently
If your pet ate weed, you’re going to notice. Dogs have a significantly higher density of CB1 receptors in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls coordination, which is why wobbly, uncoordinated movement is almost always the first thing you notice. Additionally, they have CB1 receptors in the brainstem, which humans don’t, and they metabolize THC more slowly than we do, meaning the effects last much, much longer. As a result, a dose that gives a person a mild buzz can cause serious toxicity in a small dog.
Who’s most at risk
To put it in concrete terms: a single 10mg THC edible can cause severe toxicity in a six-pound dog, where it becomes a 7.5 mg/kg dose. Because of this, small dogs, puppies, kittens, senior pets, and brachycephalic breeds (bulldogs, pugs, French bulldogs) are particularly vulnerable. Dogs account for 96% of cannabis exposure cases, partly because they’re indiscriminate eaters. Labradors and Beagles, true scavengers at heart, show up in the data more than most.
What Does it Look Like if my Pet ate Weed?
Symptoms typically appear 30 to 90 minutes after ingestion (faster if they inhaled secondhand smoke). Here’s what you’re watching for:
The telltale sign that your pet ate weed
The big indicator that your pet ate weed: ataxia – that wobbly, uncoordinated, can’t-walk-straight movement that shows up in more than 85% of cases. If your dog is staggering like they just stepped off a boat, something is wrong.
Other symptoms to watch for
- Dilated pupils
- Depression
- Lethargy
- Disorientation or confusion
- Head bobbing or swaying
- Excessive drooling
- Urinary incontinence
- Potential for vomitting
How long it lasts if my pet ate weed
If you pet ate weed, these symptoms typically peak within one to three hours and resolve within 18 to 36 hours in mild cases, though severe cases can stretch to 72 hours or longer. In one study, Gwaltney-Brant et al. documented effects lasting up to five days in the most serious exposures.
When to go to the ER if your pet ate weed
If your pet ate weed, you should look for seizures or tremors, complete inability to stand or respond, loss of consciousness, heart rate below 40 bpm, difficulty breathing, or body temperature below 99°F.
What to Do After Your Pet ate Weed
- Step 1: Don’t panic, but do act.
Take a breath. Remember: 98% recovery rate with appropriate care. - Step 2: Do NOT try to make them vomit.
Cannabis causes significant central nervous system depression. A pet who is sedated and disoriented is at extremely high risk of aspirating vomit into their lungs, meaning the vomit goes into the airway instead of out of the body, causing aspiration pneumonia, which is a far more serious emergency than the cannabis toxicity itself. The ASPCA and multiple clinical studies (Fitzgerald et al., 2013; Richardson, 2014) are direct on this: home vomiting induction in suspected cannabis cases is dangerous and should not be done.
If your vet decides to induce vomiting, they’ll do it in a clinical setting with the right tools and monitoring. - Step 3: Do these things while you call the vet.
Remove access to any remaining product immediately. Move your pet to a quiet, dim room and keep them calm. Set them on low, floor-level bedding. You don’t want a disoriented animal falling off the couch or bed. If they’re severely sedated, keep them away from water bowls. Take note of what they got into, approximately how much, and when – this information will matter enormously at the vet. If you still have the packaging, bring it.
Do not give any human medications, home remedies, coffee, or stimulants. Do not leave them alone. - Step 4: Call your vet or the Pet Poison Helpline.
Pet Poison Helpline: 855-764-7661 (available 24/7)
If your pet is showing moderate to severe symptoms, go directly to an emergency vet. Don’t wait to see if they improve. Brutlag & Hommerding (2018) found that early intervention reduces both symptom severity and duration. Fitzgerald et al. (2013) found that 25% of cannabis exposure cases required hospitalization, which means 75% didn’t, but a vet needs to make that call, not you.
Go immediately if your pet is having seizures, can’t stand, is unconscious, is vomiting, or if they ingested a cannabis edible that also contains chocolate, xylitol, raisins, or macadamia nuts. Those added ingredients bring their own toxicity profile that can be life-threatening independently of the THC.
Tell Your Vet the Truth
We know this might feel awkward. It isn’t. Your pet ate weed. Your veterinarian is legally and ethically bound to patient care, not law enforcement. In fact, the AVMA’s ethics guidelines are explicit: vets cannot and do not report cannabis exposure to law enforcement. Their only concern is your animal.
And here’s why honesty matters clinically: cannabis toxicity can mimic stroke, poisoning, head trauma, and several other serious conditions. Consequently, when owners withhold exposure history, misdiagnosis rates jump to 40% (Fitzgerald et al., 2013). On the other hand, when they’re upfront, vets can skip unnecessary testing, get to appropriate treatment faster, and save everyone time, money, and suffering. In fact, Brutlag & Hommerding (2018) found that owner disclosure accelerates appropriate care by an average of three hours.
Tell them: what the product was (flower, edible, concentrate), approximately how much THC if you know it, when the exposure happened, and critically, what else was in the product. After all, a plain cannabis gummy and a chocolate-covered cannabis brownie with xylitol in the frosting are very different emergencies.
What the Vet Will Actually Do
If you bring your pet in, here’s what to expect. They’ll do a physical exam and check vital signs, likely run a urinalysis (cannabis metabolites are detectable in pet urine for five to seven days), check blood chemistry to rule out other toxins, and check blood glucose since hypoglycemia is possible.
Treatment is primarily supportive, which is the medical term for “keep the patient stable and comfortable while their body processes the toxin.” Depending on timing and severity, that might include activated charcoal to reduce further absorption (which Brutlag & Hommerding found reduces symptom duration by about 30%), IV fluids, warming if their temperature has dropped, anti-nausea medication, and monitoring. On average, hospitalization in documented cases was around 15 hours, with 75% of dogs discharged within 24 hours.
In severe cases of seizures or significant cardiovascular effects, additional interventions are available, including intralipid therapy (an investigational treatment documented by Fernandez et al., 2011) and benzodiazepines for seizure control.
Overall, the fatality rate with appropriate veterinary care is under 1%. There are only two documented canine fatalities attributed to pure cannabis in the literature, both involving massive doses of concentrated products. Your pet is going to be okay. But please, get them seen.
My Pet Ate an Edible
Edibles are the most dangerous category of cannabis product for pets, accounting for 60% of severe toxicity cases (Wismer, 2021).
That’s because edibles are concentrated. A single serving can contain anywhere from 5 to 100+ mg of THC. Additionally, they take 30 to 120 minutes to kick in, which means by the time your pet is showing symptoms, they may have eaten the entire thing an hour ago. What’s more, they often contain additional ingredients that are independently toxic to pets: chocolate (methylxanthine toxicity), xylitol (causes hypoglycemia and liver failure in dogs), raisins (acute kidney failure), macadamia nuts, and high-fat butter or oil bases that can trigger pancreatitis.
Chocolate cannabis edibles were responsible for 15% of ICU admissions in the Brutlag & Hommerding data. Notably, the two documented canine fatalities in the literature both involved butter or oil concentrates.
My Pet Consumed CBD
CBD (cannabidiol) is a different story than THC. It’s non-intoxicating, does not cause the toxicity syndrome described above, and has a significantly higher safety margin. For example, dogs in Gamble et al. (2018) tolerated doses up to 62 mg/kg without severe adverse effects, and Vaughn et al. (2020) found no serious events in dogs receiving therapeutic CBD for 12 weeks.
That said, product quality varies enormously. Some CBD products on the market contain unlabeled THC. Human full-spectrum CBD products can legally contain up to 0.3% THC, which is trace for a person but potentially meaningful for a small dog consuming a large dose. So, always verify with a third-party Certificate of Analysis, and choose broad-spectrum or isolate products specifically formulated for pets.
The toxicity concern with pet CBD is primarily mild sedation or GI upset, both of which are self-limiting.
Prevention, Because It’s Easier Than All of This
If your pet ate weed, it may be time to get a storage box. Store everything in high, locked cabinets. Childproofing logic applies perfectly here – if a toddler could get into it, so can your dog. Also, keep the Pet Poison Helpline number (855-764-7661) and your nearest 24-hour emergency vet saved in your phone before you ever need them. Brief any guests who might be carrying product. And if you’re consuming at home, be mindful of where things land – couches, coffee tables, floors. Labradors will eat literally anything.
Your pet is one of the great loves of your life. Treat your stash accordingly.
The Bottom Line if Your Pet ate Weed
Your pet ate weed. Can dogs get high? Yes. Is it dangerous? Yes, more than most people realize. Will they be okay? Almost certainly, with proper care. Call your vet or the Pet Poison Helpline (855-764-7661) immediately. Don’t induce vomiting. Be honest about what happened. Get them seen.
And maybe invest in a lockbox.
Citations
Brutlag, A., Hommerding, H., & Youngberg, T. (2012). Toxicosis in 4 dogs from marijuana exposure at a Colorado veterinary medical teaching hospital. Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1476-4431.2012.00768_6.x
Brutlag, A., & Hommerding, H. (2018). Toxicology of marijuana, synthetic cannabinoids, and cannabidiol in dogs and cats. Veterinary Clinics: Small Animal Practice. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195561618300865
Donaldson, C. W. (2002). Marijuana exposure in animals. Veterinary Medicine.
Fernandez, A. L. et al. (2011). The use of intravenous lipid emulsion as an antidote in veterinary toxicology. Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1476-4431.2011.00657.x
Fitzgerald, K. T., Bronstein, A. C., & Newquist, K. L. (2013). Marijuana poisoning. Topics in Companion Animal Medicine. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1938973613000063
Gamble, L. J. et al. (2018). Pharmacokinetics, safety, and clinical efficacy of cannabidiol treatment in osteoarthritic dogs. Frontiers in Veterinary Science. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2018.00165/full
Janczyk, P., Donaldson, C. W., & Gwaltney, S. (2004). Two hundred and thirteen cases of marijuana toxicosis in dogs. Veterinary and Human Toxicology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14748410/
Khan, S. A., McLean, M. K., & Slater, M. R. (2012). Concentrated tetrahydrocannabinol toxicosis in dogs. JAVMA. https://avmajournals.avma.org/view/journals/javma/242/12/javma.242.12.1647.xml
McGrath, S. et al. (2019). Randomized blinded controlled clinical trial to assess the effect of oral cannabidiol administration in addition to conventional antiepileptic treatment on seizure frequency in dogs. JAVMA. https://avmajournals.avma.org/view/journals/javma/254/11/javma.254.11.1301.xml
Meola, S. D. et al. (2012). Evaluation of trends in marijuana toxicosis in dogs living in a state with legalized medical marijuana. Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1476-4431.2012.00818.x
Stogner, J. M., & Miller, B. L. (2015). Assessing the dangers of “dabbing.” Pediatrics. https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/136/1/1/74076/
Vaughn, D., Kulpa, J., & Paulionis, L. (2020). Preliminary investigation of the safety of escalating cannabinoid doses in healthy dogs. Frontiers in Veterinary Science. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2020.00051/full
Wismer, T. (2021). Marijuana toxicosis in dogs and cats. Veterinary Clinics: Small Animal Practice. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195561621000840
AVMA. (2020). Cannabis: What veterinarians need to know. https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/animal-health-and-welfare/cannabis-use-and-pets
ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center. (2021). Marijuana toxicity in pets. https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants/marijuana
Pet Poison Helpline. (2021). Marijuana intoxication in dogs and cats. https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/poison/marijuana/
