According to a new study, feeding donkeys and fresh marijuana buds are not good as it can affect their health. The side effects are similar to what happens in humans when they overdose on marijuana. There is an increase in heart rate, and it can take as much as an entire day for the symptoms to come down in these animals.
The study was done on both male and female donkeys. As part of the study, a few grams of cannabis were given to these animals, and the symptoms were analyzed. Researchers are hopeful that using such methods to test the toxicosis in animals can be helpful to implement the same methods in human tests. The concentration of cannabinoids was analyzed in the plasma of donkeys. However, experts say that more research is needed to understand the level at which cannabis causes toxicosis in these animals.
Practitioners used laxatives and gastric lavage to ease the symptoms when the dose was too high for the donkeys. This is the simple method to treat overdose, and it eases the excretion process, thereby eliminating the cannabis from the system in a quick time. In canine patients, even activated charcoal is used to treat such symptoms.
However, the study does not make a direct comment on the ethical aspect of feeding such substances to animals in general. However, it is not a wise thing to do as it does more harm than expected in most cases. Apart from that, care should be taken to avoid accidental intake of such substances when animals are out in open fields.
A recent study that was conducted last year had proved that some canines were addicted to marijuana, and they even ate the feces of people who had consumed such substances in order to get the intoxication.
There are many studies conducted about using non-intoxicating substances like CBD oil for treating various ailments in animals.