My Dog Ate an Edible: What to Do Right Now
Call your veterinarian, or an emergency veterinary clinic, or an animal poison control line now. Do this before you finish reading this page.
This is treatable and dogs generally recover well, but the outcome is better the sooner they are seen. Do not wait to see how it goes.
What to tell them
Have these ready. It changes what they do.
- What it was. A gummy, a chocolate, a baked item, a vape cartridge, a discarded joint found on a walk.
- How much THC, if the packaging says. Bring the packaging or a photograph of it to the clinic.
- How much of it your dog ate, or your best estimate.
- When, as precisely as you can.
- Your dog’s weight.
- Any medication your dog takes, and any existing health conditions.
- Whether there was anything else in it. Chocolate, raisins, nuts, or xylitol in a sugar-free product. These matter independently and some of them matter more than the THC.
Tell them the truth
This is the most important paragraph on this page.
Veterinary teams are not interested in whether the cannabis was legal, whose it was, or how the dog got it. They see this constantly and they are not going to report you. What they need is accurate information, because the treatment for a dog that ate a THC edible is different from the treatment for a dog with an unexplained neurological presentation.
Owners who are vague about what happened cost their dog time. Vets end up running tests to find something the owner already knows. Just say what it was.
What not to do
- Do not wait to see whether it wears off. Call first, decide second. The clinic will tell you if watchful waiting is appropriate for your situation.
- Do not try to make your dog vomit at home. Whether that is appropriate depends on how long ago it happened and what was eaten, and doing it wrong can cause a dog to inhale stomach contents, which turns one problem into a worse one. If it is the right call, the clinic will do it safely.
- Do not give food, milk, or anything else “to soak it up.” Ask the clinic first.
- Do not give any CBD product. It does not counteract THC and it complicates the picture.
- Do not assume a small dog and a small edible cancel out. Dogs are more sensitive to THC than people are, and a small dog on a “small” edible is not a small exposure.
What you might see
Signs usually appear within a few hours but the timing varies with what was eaten and how much.
- Wobbliness, stumbling, or difficulty standing
- A glazed or vacant look, dilated pupils
- Dribbling urine, which is a well-recognised sign
- Extreme sensitivity to sound, light or touch, sometimes with startling
- Drowsiness, or the opposite: agitation and pacing
- Vomiting, drooling
- Low or slow heart rate
- Shivering or a low body temperature
- In more serious cases: collapse, unresponsiveness, seizures
Any of collapse, seizure, difficulty breathing or unresponsiveness is an emergency now, not a phone call to a regular daytime practice.
What treatment usually looks like
This varies and your vet decides it, but it helps to know roughly what you are agreeing to.
Care is supportive: keeping the dog safe, warm, hydrated and monitored while the THC clears. Depending on timing, the clinic may act to reduce further absorption. Fluids and monitoring are common. Some dogs are kept in; some go home with instructions.
Most dogs recover fully. That is the honest and reassuring part. What determines the outcome is largely how quickly they are seen and whether anything else was in the product.
The things that can be worse than the THC
Worth knowing, because owners fixate on the cannabis and the co-ingredient is sometimes the bigger problem.
- Chocolate, in a chocolate edible, is separately toxic to dogs.
- Xylitol, in sugar-free products, is dangerous to dogs and acts quickly.
- Raisins and grapes, in baked goods, are a separate and serious risk.
- Concentrates and vape cartridges carry far more THC per gram than a baked item.
- The packaging itself, if swallowed, can cause an obstruction.
Tell the clinic about all of it.
Afterwards
Work out how it happened and close that route. Most cases are a bag on a coffee table, a coat pocket, a handbag on the floor, a bin, or something found on a walk. Dogs are extremely good at this.
Store everything the way you would store medication. High, closed, and not in a bag on the floor.
On walks, be alert in areas where things get discarded. A dog that has learned to hoover the pavement is a dog that will do this again.
This is why THC-free matters in a pet product
The reason every page on this site insists on THC-free with a certificate is the situation described above.
Dogs do not process THC the way people do. “Only a trace” is a human legal threshold applied to an animal a fraction of your weight. If a pet product cannot show you a laboratory certificate confirming no THC, that is your answer.
The short version
- Call a vet or an animal poison control line now. Do not wait it out.
- Tell them exactly what it was, how much, and when. Nobody is judging you.
- Bring the packaging.
- Do not induce vomiting at home. Let the clinic decide.
- Watch for wobbliness, dilated pupils, dribbling urine and sound sensitivity.
- Collapse, seizure or unresponsiveness is an emergency right now.
- Most dogs recover fully, and speed is the thing that helps most.
This article is for general information and is not veterinary advice. If your dog has ingested THC, contact your veterinarian or an animal poison control service immediately. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.