I’m going on vacation next week and a friend of mine has offered to watch my dog while I’m gone, but I happen to know that she smoke a lot of pot. Can the second hand smoke harm my dog?
Depends on what the dog ends up eating while baked.
The answer to your question, “Can the second hand smoke harm my dog?” is yes.
The question your prob’ly should ask is, “Is my dog likely to be harmed by my friends second-hand smoke?” The answer to that is no.
Dogs can suffer fairly badly if they accidentally eat the weed. Not uncommon for the pets of potheads, what with the humans being otherwise distracted.
People who are high tend not to be paying attention in general. A couple years ago, we had some clearly baked guys come in with their friends puppy. The dog got into the closet and swallowed a fishhook. $1500 of endoscopy later, and the puppy is fine. But still…
Also, people on pot with pets around invariably have the grand notion of blowing smoke in the animal’s face. It’s probably not grossly harmful, but the stupidity of it pains me, aesthetically.
Might be better to keep your dog at your place and ask your friends to come feed it and take it for walks.
That’s a very stereotypical statement.
I once had a puppy who ate a whole lot of weed when my back was turned. He was out for a while but then was fine ever after. It was scary.
I wouldn’t worry about second hand smoke, but is this doper a responsible person? Because when I was a doper I sure wasn’t, and neither were any of my fellow smokers.
IMHO it may be stereotype, but it’s one that does generally apply. But being high isn’t exactly the only time when people aren’t paying 100% attention to their pets.
That, however is just not true. I’ve been high many times with people with pets in the vicinity and I’ve seen this exactly once, and the guy who did it was just an ass. The cat didn’t seem to mind much, though I doubt it’s good for them.
A dog might get stomach ache if it eats enough of the stuff but it won’t get very high.
Eating uncooked weed is a very inefficient way of absorbing the THC, which is why most recipes recommend heating it with butter. THC is fat soluble so this mix is far more effective for ingestion and enjoyment purposes.
I’ve seen it many times, but the people who did it were hardly asses, IME. Cats and dogs seem to be like people when it comes to pot. Some love it, some hate, and some can take or leave it. I’ve seen the pets who love it come running from a couple rooms away as soon as they smell it, then stand directly “downwind” of the exhaled smoke. If the smoker blows it in a different direction, the pet moves there. Other pets will leave the room if you’re smoking. And the ones who are indifferent won’t leave on account of pot smoke, but they won’t seek it out, either.
The only people I’ve seen actually blow it in pets’ faces are the ones with pets who would have been chasing after the smoke anyway. How much the pet likes pot doesn’t seem to have anything to do with how much the owner smokes or any other factor that I’ve noticed.
Then you know different potheads than me.
Then you work at a different emergency veterinary clinic than me.
Here’s the description of clinical signs seen with marijuana intoxication taken from the Merck Veterinary Manual
I can’t speak as to exactly how frequently we see the sever signs, because I’m not involved with every case that comes in. But, I wouldn’t leave my dog with someone who is likely to have largish amounts of marijuana around.
To clarify (missed the edit window)
I don’t take issue with marijuana smokers specifically. I take issue with excess. I would similarly be nervous about leaving my dog with a get-wasted-every-night-alcoholic, or someone who had tons of chocolate lying around, or even someone who had lots of exotic plants. Naturally, the OP has more details on the person and their habits and how they react to their particular recreation. And, the OP knows if their dog is likely to eat something it finds on the ground.
I wouldn’t trust my dog to my dorm roommate because she parties every night, but I would trust my dog to my uncle, even though he drinks himself to sleep with a whole bottle of Jack. They both deal with their same bad habit differently.
I would trust my dorm roommate with my cat, though, because my cat refuses to eat anything but Friskies.
Clearly I am not so employed.
My comment certainly applies to human consumption, unless of course the product is sufficiently aged to have undergone decarboxylation, in which case there will be a definite high.
There must be a feature of the dog’s system which enables quicker digestion of this fibrous substance.
Well that’s quite probable. I was taking issue with your “invariably” qualifier.
To make my stand clear: when I was still smoking a lot and many of my friends were too, we were all a lot younger and a lot more irresponsible in general. Looking back, I would trust a pet to about half of them. Unless someone can come up with a real danger of second hand smoke for a dog when he’s only exposed for a couple of weeks or so (and I’m not talking about getting smoke blown in his face all the time), and you trust the people to be sensible I don’t see any reason not to go with them.
If you’re doubting their ability to take care of a dog, the smoke shouldn’t make any difference.
Anecdotal:
A previous roommate of mine got my dog Sienna high once, and she spent about 2 hours crying and clinging to the ground very obviously frightened by the whole experience.
hi all i have been growing for a number of years now and had alot of dogs in this time. I now have a siberian husky who is a year and a half and 3 cats. my husky loves the shade leaves as they are called on the plant and in moderation they seem to help him. I have never had any adverse affects from letting him eat they and on a few occations my cat has eatten a bud from the side while i have been making a spliff. i think it is ok in some cases but never in the way of smoke being blown at the animal.
OH AND NOT ALL WEED SMOKERS DONT KEEP CONCENTRATION. I WORK 12 HR DAYS AS A MOTOR MECANIC AND HAVE DONE FOR YEARS AND I HAVE BEEN A SMOKER FOR NEARLY 18YRS NOW
Well, I do not know you, nor was I aware you were a pothead, but hey.
As they say, “the plural of anecdote is not data.” This is not an unknown or unstudied phenomena. We know where the cannabinoid receptors are concentrated in the brain and we know its effects on those areas. Pot causes distorted perception, impaired coordination, reduced problem solving capability, and impaired learning and memory. We also know that many of these effects last for weeks after last use.
It may be that you are an exception to the most common known effects of pot use. I have to say though I find it more likely that self reporting of the effects of a mind altering substance is likely to be wrong. My guess is that you have a greatly reduced concentration and you just aren’t aware of it.
Once this young woman was giving her dog a bath in the tub, and she decided to get high, and forgot about the dog, and the DOG DROWNED!!!11!! I saw this on the TV show Dognet.
Sorry folks, but there are plenty of upright, stone cold sober morons out there who I wouldn’t leave my best friend with. Smoking pot would be the least of my concerns. Luckily Blackjack is smarter than the average human, so I’d be more concerned with leaving him with someone who leaves their credit cards and car keys out where he could get them. It’s really difficult to return dog toys once they’ve got dog spit all over them.
Your use of the word invariably here, means either you don’t understand what it means fully, or you’re not quite smart enough to understand that making such a foolish and inaccurate statement discounts your opinion entirely and any credibility your opinion may have ever had.
I know people with pets, long time bud smokers who have never done any such thing. More than a few of them.
zombie or no
did you enjoy your vacation?