By Caleb Wright
CBD (cannabidiol) is one of the fastest evolving markets in the pet health and wellness industry. It seems new businesses are popping up as fast as spring flowers. There are hundreds if not thousands of choices for quality CBD products. How do you sift through the CBD market haystack to find the most beneficial, suitable, and appropriate product for your pet?
Let’s start by asking the questions What makes a quality CBD product? What is third party testing and why is it important? How can CBD benefit pets? How do you determine which product works best? How do you determine the proper dosage?
The information can be overwhelming and incongruous with companies pushing clever marketing tactics versus exceptional high quality organic ingredients. My name is Caleb Wright, creator and founder of Orozona Oils. I’d like to shed some light on what to look for, how to look for it, and why finding the right product is so important.
I founded Orozona Oils in 2020 and have been in the wellness business, with a focus on hemp derived CBD for 8 years. After becoming aware of the need for education and quality CBD products in this up-and-coming industry my wife, Talitha, and I decided to fill the need by creating clean, simple, and effective hemp products. Also we are providing honest, clear, and easy to understand language to educate and inspire. It is our goal to provide an answer to those who say, “I tried CBD and it doesn’t work!”
Here are some questions to be asking along with the top 5 key elements to look for in a CBD product:
What makes a quality CBD product? Quality products are sourced with the finest ingredients, remaining as close to nature as possible, with the intention of enhancing cellular health. Ingredients need to support each other and not conflict with one another. The hemp oil should have a fairly wide representation of its former self as a rich, oily plant. The absence of artificial flavorings, colorings, fillers, or preservatives is vital. We call this honoring the wisdom of nature.
Quality can often be recognized by the quantity. If a product is mass-produced, chances are it lacks in quality. Many of the products found on the market today are produced by large corporations that tend to be more concerned with investor earnings than the people and animals their products are created to serve.
Is organic better? Being organic supports confidence that the ingredients in a product have not been exposed to chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides. CBD is a substance that crosses the blood-brain barrier, so we need to be sure that it’s clean. Hemp is a bioaccumulator, meaning it will draw toxins out of the soil and store them as it grows. It’s great for bioremediation of toxic soil, but not desirable when it comes to making products we ingest. Hemp must be grown in clean soil.
When should you expect to see a difference with your pet? We often see a shift in animals within the first 2-5 days of use. In more severe cases, it could take up to 2 weeks. Even after noticing results, it is imperative to maintain consistent daily use, as CBD is stored in the fat cells and takes time to accumulate in the system. You want to be sure to replenish the CBD stores in your cells as the body is utilizing it. That being said, some users report positive shift in less than a day!
Is CBD regulated? CBD remains unregulated to date. This is a debated subject. On one hand, you have those who feel that if the government steps in and asserts standards, the industry will be stable and everyone will know exactly what they’re buying, like aspirin. The other camp sees regulation as a way for the market to squeeze out smaller competitors, furthering the corporate monopolies on food and medicine, while offering less variety and potentially poor-quality products, produced en mass.
Why is this such a controversial subject? That touches on one of the downsides of deregulation. You, as a consumer, have to do the homework. For some of us, that’s liberating, and we are happy to have the freedom to choose. For others, it can be daunting not knowing what to look for, what the criteria is. There are so many options available from weak, low percentage CBD to 99% CBD isolate and everything in between. In some states, you can buy products with CBD and THC. On a national level, 0.3% THC is the acceptable amount and will not produce a psychoactive effect.
What are the top 5 things that one should look for in researching a CBD product?
1. Is It Organic?
Non-organic products leave you open to compromised ingredients. We’re in this for health and wellness, so it’s best not to compromise on this one.
2. Is It Full-Spectrum Oil? (vs. broad spectrum or isolate).
We want a terpene and lipid-rich, full-spectrum hemp extract with 25-35% total CBD. It keeps intact as many constituents of the plant as possible, lending to absorption in the body so that efficacy becomes possible. It efficiently bonds with lipids in the body found in the organs and brain, which are designed to receive fats and oils. In the case of broad spectrum, they pull out lipids, terpenes, and any trace of THC. It’s like benching the shortstop, first base, and right field, and expecting the pitcher to play better! This is done primarily as a marketing angle to speak to those who have a negative perception about THC, although it is impossible to have a THC induced psychoactive experience with full-spectrum hemp extract, at or below 0.3%. There simply is not enough THC to do so.
This leads us to CBD isolate, which takes a hemp plant and strips everything but the CBD out using hydrocarbons, rendering a white, water-soluble powder. This is as ridiculous as asking the pitcher to play every position of the field! Isolates are popular because they are versatile, flavorless, odorless, and easy to formulate with other water-based ingredients. However, they are not able to bond with the lipids in the body. It washes over cells but does not absorb into the cells like oil does, making them far less effective than full-spectrum oil, in my opinion. I like to equate isolates to white bread and quality full spectrum hemp extract to sprouted whole grain bread. Now if health, wellness, and nourishment are in mind, which will you want to consume?
3. How was the CBD Extracted?
Hydrocarbons, such as butane and ethanol and pentane are popular methods, but they treat the hemp harshly. I also don’t like the possibility of residual solvents potentially being present in the final product. We endorse wiped film evaporation as our preferred method of distillation. It is clean, efficient, and uses no solvents or harsh treatment of the raw material, rendering a gold grade extract with terpenes, lipids, vitamins, minerals, and major and minor cannabinoids intact. Super-critical CO2 is also acceptable for similar reasons.
4. Have the Lipids Been Stripped Out?
It is commonplace to see full-spectrum hemp extract stripped of naturally occurring plant waxes, lipids, and terpenes. Most full-spectrum distillates are highly-refined, boasting of elevated CBD levels (to appease the perception that more is better). This is achieved at the peril of key players, such as terpenes, vitamin E, amino and fatty acids, and other lipids that actually deliver the CBD to the cells. It is our experience that those lipids, terpenes, and vitamins are necessary for a product to be most useful.
5. How Many Ingredients, and Can You Pronounce Them?
Only two ingredients are needed, hemp extract and delivery oil. Any more than 2 ingredients often get in the way of metabolism. In the case of treats, use other fatty ingredients to help breakdown the CBD to aid in absorption, and be sure they have been prepared using low temperatures to preserve the properties of the key ingredients. When you can’t pronounce an ingredient, chances are it’s not good for you! Keep it simple.
How can CBD benefit pets? All mammals and birds have an endocannabinoid system, which is the governor of the central nervous system. It serves to regulate and balance all that is going on in the body. With proper and consistent dosing, CBD is a unique food that feeds that system. When it is adequately nourished, it provides support to every cell of the body. That’s why we all benefit from it. It’s literally food that energizes the cells, resulting in healthy development and communication. Remember, all diseases are simply cellular miscommunication. CBD smooths out cellular conversations in the body, often resulting in reduced inflammation, joint and muscle pain, eased anxiety, improved gut and brain health, immune support, seizure control, and so much more. It also helps cells develop properly so we don’t have ear cells trying to be nose cells!
How do you make the determination which product works best? If you follow the guidelines of the top 5 things to look for, you’ll find a good product. Keep in mind that quality, ethically sourced ingredients are more important than flavor and texture. From there, it is a bit of experimentation with various strengths and proper dosage. Our products are available for pets in 250mg and 500mg of hemp extract per bottle, mixed in either coconut oil or cranberry seed oil. These oils provide ancillary benefits that are helpful for specific things, but the CBD is the heavy lifter.
When do you recommend tinctures versus topical versus edibles? I recommend tinctures for all occasions because it services the body from the inside out, intuitively bringing relief where it is most needed. That being said, topicals have their place. They are great for things like local arthritic and muscle pain, wound care, damaged paws, hot spots, and other skin conditions.
Topicals will not get into the blood stream like ingestibles will, making them less effective. Edibles are good, if they have been prepared properly, like Snarky Barks are. Some pets are finicky about what they will tolerate. A treat is a clever way to deliver the CBD without them refusing. We have trained our dog to think that the CBD is a treat, and she comes to sit pretty when she sees the bottle so she can get her dosing!
How do you determine dosage? Being unregulated by the FDA, it does mean that we are unable to give specific dosing instructions. However we can give a starting point suggestion. We approach dosage based on weight or the severity of the condition. We use weight if the condition is relatively minor, are seeking a basic sense of well-being, and to maintain cell nourishment. Our recommendation is 1-2 mgs of our hemp extract per 10 lbs of body weight, 1-2 times daily. For example, a 50 lb dog could start with 5-10mgs, 1-2 times daily. If we are seeking to make an impact on a severe case, we throw the weight chart out the window and dose based on efficacy. Being non-toxic, and in the case of Orozona Oils, free of other ingredients that you may not want too much of, you can experiment with finding your specific dosage after starting with our suggestion and making adjustments based on your response rate.
What is third party testing and why is it so important in finding the right CBD product? Third party testing gives the consumer a report from a non-interested entity, describing what was found in a product upon testing. They can test for many things, but in this industry, we primarily test for CBD potency and often purity; elements like moisture, pesticides, fungus, etc.
The bottom line is CBD can be beneficial to the health of your pet. CBD can help address arthritic joints, anxious encounters, travel hesitation, lameness recovery, and even skin conditions. CBD can provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immune boosting support. It may be the perfect supplement to your pet’s diet and health regimen.
