Pet owners have also taken notice. Vet Guru has been contacted by over a dozen different pet owners who have attempted to use cannabis to treat skin cancer in their dogs and cats. These anecdotal reports offer some of the best evidence to date that marijuana may indeed posses tumor fighting properties. Please keep in mind that these are not scientific studies and do not represent “concrete evidence”. Nevertheless, several companies are currently working on developing commercial THC based ointments for use on pets. In addition, research is underway to explore the possible use of oral THC medication to treat systemic and internal forms of cancer in pets as well. It is a rapidly developing field of study that so far has shown great promise. Perhaps pet owners and veterinarians will soon have a new weapon in the war on skin cancer…
* Warning – One important consideration that pet owners must keep in mind: any topical preparation applied on a animal runs the risk of inadvertent ingestion. In other words, cats and dogs will lick and ingest most topical treatments that they can reach. This could have potentially serious consequences depending on the nature of the medication in question. A topical THC preparation applied to tumors on pets must be protected so that it can’t be consumed and result in toxicity. This can be accomplished a number of ways; namely by using an “E-collar” (lampshade) and by protecting the site with a bandage. Depending on the location of the cancer, however, some sites would be difficult if not impossible to protect. Tumors on the nose and faces of dogs and cats would be particularly challenging cases to manage.
A case report from a cat owner is described below:
We got the cat for free from a rural property out west Sydney, The mother was a barn cat that lived pretty much as a feral, the mother cat may have been exposed to pesticides or other hydrocarbon based chemicals as her litter has some deformities, my partner had to choose between a stumpy tail cat that was born with no nail, it was just a 2 centimetre tail which looked deformed, so she chose the cat with the birthmark on its white nose, we all though it was a birthmark until a few weeks later it developed into a dark brown mark, we thought it was fungi so we left it that way, i then started spreading along the nose out towards the face, the cat kept purring as if it was sick (did not purr for food as it was fully fed) I contacted two vets and ask them what it may be, they directly told me its a cat melanoma cancer and that cats with white noses are very prone to get them, then we applied the ointment onto the cats nose for 3 weeks, everyday the cats nose was absolutely saturated in the oil ointment and was re applied 4 times per day in very generous doses.
After one month it was gone scar free. During the treatment it was as if the cancer grew up out of the tissues and skin up to the surface and then it scabbed off repeatedly until it was gone.
References:
Unheated Cannabis sativa extracts and its major compound THC-acid have potential immuno-modulating properties not mediated by CB1 and CB2 receptor coupled pathways.
Int Immunopharmacol. 2006 Apr;6(4):656-65. Epub 2005 Nov 7.
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/64/6/1943.full