Your Pet Ate THC: What to Do Right Now
Call your veterinarian, an emergency veterinary clinic, or an animal poison control line now. Do it before you finish this page.
This is treatable and most animals recover well. The outcome is better the sooner they are seen. Do not wait to see how it goes.
If it was a dog, the fuller page is here: my dog ate an edible. Call first, read second.
What to tell them
Have this ready, because it changes what they do.
- What it was. Dried cannabis, a gummy, a chocolate, a baked item, a vape cartridge, a discarded joint found outside.
- How much THC, if the packaging says. Bring the packaging or a photo of it.
- How much your animal ate, or your best estimate.
- When, as precisely as you can.
- The species and the weight. A 4kg cat and a 30kg dog are different situations.
- Any medication, and any existing conditions.
- Whether anything else was in it. Chocolate, raisins, nuts, or xylitol in a sugar-free product. Some of these matter more than the THC.
Tell them the truth
The most important paragraph here.
Veterinary teams do not care whether the cannabis was legal, whose it was, or how the animal got it. They see this constantly. What they need is accurate information, because treating a known THC ingestion is different from investigating an unexplained neurological presentation.
Owners who are vague cost their animal time. Vets run tests looking for 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.
Do not try to make your animal vomit at home. Whether that is appropriate depends on timing and on what was eaten, and doing it wrong can cause aspiration. If it is the right call, the clinic will do it safely. This applies especially to cats and small mammals, where it is rarely appropriate.
Do not give food, milk or anything else “to soak it up” without asking.
Do not give any CBD product. It does not counteract THC and it complicates the picture.
Do not assume a small animal and a small amount cancel out. They do not. A small animal on a small amount is not a small exposure.
Species notes
Dogs are the most common presentation by a wide margin, mostly because they eat things off the floor.
Cats present less often and are harder to read, because a cat that feels unwell hides. If your cat has disappeared under a bed and is not coming out, that is information, not reassurance.
Rabbits and small mammals are a particular concern because of their size and because they cannot vomit. Any ingestion in a very small animal is an urgent call, and an exotics-experienced vet is preferable if one is reachable.
Any animal that has eaten packaging has a second problem, because it can cause an obstruction. Mention it.
What you might see
Signs usually appear within a few hours, though timing varies with what was eaten.
- Wobbliness, stumbling, difficulty standing
- A glazed or vacant look, dilated pupils
- Dribbling urine, a well-recognised sign in dogs
- Extreme sensitivity to sound, light or touch, sometimes with startling
- Drowsiness, or the opposite: agitation and pacing
- Vomiting, drooling
- A slow heart rate
- Shivering or low body temperature
- In more serious cases: collapse, unresponsiveness, seizures
Collapse, seizure, difficulty breathing or unresponsiveness is an emergency now, not a call to a daytime practice tomorrow.
What treatment usually looks like
Your vet decides this, but it helps to know the shape of it.
Care is supportive: keeping the animal safe, warm, hydrated and monitored while the THC clears. Depending on timing, the clinic may act to limit further absorption. Fluids and monitoring are common. Some animals stay in, some go home with instructions.
Most animals recover fully. What most affects the outcome is how quickly they are seen and whether anything else was in the product.
The co-ingredients that can be worse than the THC
Owners fixate on the cannabis and sometimes the other ingredient is the bigger problem.
- Chocolate 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, if swallowed.
Tell the clinic about all of it.
Afterwards
Work out how it happened and close that route. Most cases are a bag on a table, a coat pocket, a handbag on the floor, a bin, or something found outdoors.
Store it the way you would store medication: high, closed, and not in a bag on the floor. Animals are better at finding things than people expect.
Why this is the reason THC-free matters
Every page on this site insists on THC-free with a certificate, and this situation is why.
Animals do not process THC the way people do. “Only a trace” is a human legal threshold applied to a much smaller body. If a pet product cannot show you a laboratory certificate confirming no THC, that is your answer.
The short version
- Call a vet or animal poison control now. Do not wait it out.
- Tell them exactly what, how much, and when. Nobody is judging you.
- Bring the packaging.
- Do not induce vomiting at home, especially in cats and small mammals.
- Watch for wobbliness, dilated pupils, sound sensitivity and, in dogs, dribbling urine.
- Collapse, seizure or unresponsiveness is an emergency right now.
- Most animals recover fully, and speed is what helps most.
This article is for general information and is not veterinary advice. If your animal 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.