Flora is a very cute beagle who lives in Bagé, Rio Grande do Sul. Young and lively, she is three years old and had her first seizure when she was just one. For Renata, the dedicated owner, as well as for her entire family, it was a painful moment with new challenges. Fortunately, in the near future, Ma. Neide Griebeler, a veterinarian prescriber of cannabis, would arrive to change the fate of both.

Four Paws and a Pure Heart

Flora is a big kid. She loves swimming, relaxing in the ball pit, and playing with her canine friends. Her best friend is the inseparable Fiona, another beagle in the house. And the two best friends forever (BFFs) even have Instagram!

Flora is the one with the pink nose and, according to Renata, “she is very intense. She is a very special dog, she is affectionate, she is friendly, she is sociable. On the street, she wants to play with every dog that passes by.” If allowed, she plays all day, as “she is always willing, very happy.”

However, Flora is also very restless, anxious, and her excitement is such that she gets sick, having had seizures several times. These seizures are “usually triggered by her emotional state. She doesn't handle emotions well,” explains Renata. “I think there's a bit of anxiety too, but what really triggers it is the excitement.”

The owner recounts, for example, that “if a visitor came to my house and she really liked that person, she would have a seizure. If a little dog came to play with her, which made her very happy, she would have a seizure.” Fiona, the one with the black nose, is calmer: “the other beagle doesn't have seizures, but she is emotionally more stable, you know? Flora, everything she does is very intense!”

Then Came the Seizures

At just one year old, the first seizure occurred. “She lost control of her body, lost control of her legs. Her pupils dilated, she drooled a lot.” As if that acute moment wasn't enough, “every time she had a seizure, until starting this treatment with Dr. Neide, she was more or less out of it for 24 hours and screamed like some children with disabilities.”

Searching for solutions to these seizures, the first prescription Renata received was Gardenal. It was effective against the seizures, but Flora lost the joy she had before the seizures and developed a different personality, now apathetic and less playful. This was a side effect of the medication. The search for better therapies continued, and soon Renata came across the anticonvulsant properties of cannabis.

The life of the owner and the dog, during this period, “was very limited. I couldn't face any situation where she got very happy, because she got very excited and that triggered the seizure.” Renata confesses that “it was very difficult until Flora started being treated by Dr. Neide. It still is, but I learned to understand her emotions.” “Since July, when I met Dr. Neide, she only had one seizure, but nothing like the others she had when she was on the other treatment. This last one was very mild, she just got a little weaker, but her pupils didn't dilate, she didn't clench her mouth, it was different. And it was very quick, the others lasted longer.”

Today the situation is better: both live more peacefully. Flora's seizures have ceased, and she has regained her liveliness, returning to play, consequently bringing back Renata's peace. Recently, during Carnival, Flora even went to the beach. “Enjoying life after cannabis, because when she was only on Gardenal, she was always like she was sedated,” Renata told us.

Taking her to the beach, of course, was part of the therapeutic care for the little one: “going to the beach greatly improves her emotions. She releases energy and becomes emotionally stable. She loves water, both pool and sea,” reported the owner, who also identified a curiosity amid all this turmoil: the seizures only happened in winter. “In summer, she never had them,” she revealed to us.

Treatment with Cannabis and Interaction with Gardenal

According to Renata, Flora “started using Gardenal, but when she started using Gardenal, I saw that her personality changed a lot, because she became very sleepy, slept a lot, didn't play.” Quickly, the family noticed the deleterious side effects that manifested: “she was a different dog. She didn't have seizures, but she was a different little dog.”

The use of Gardenal, prescribed by a veterinarian, began around the time of the second seizure. “I don't remember exactly when it was, but if I'm not mistaken, the difference between the first and second was about two months.” Shortly after, Renata found a veterinarian who worked with cannabis. This first attempt, however, didn't work out well.

A weaning off Gardenal was attempted, but the seizures continued to occur. According to Dr. Neide, the current veterinarian on the case, when Flora came to her, “she was taking two cannabis extracts: one of CBD [cannabidiol] and one high THC [tetrahydrocannabinol].” During the historic floods that shook Rio Grande do Sul, Renata recounts that these cannabis extracts at the time ran out, and the situation worsened: “there was no way to get them, and then she started having one seizure after another.”

It was in July 2024 that Renata met Dr. Neide, through a cousin who is a veterinarian and a fellow countryman of the veterinary doctor. “Since then, Flora has had a different quality of life. She plays, is still being weaned off Gardenal, yes, but she plays, enjoys life. She is a normal little dog, which she wasn't anymore.”

Currently, the adorable pink-nosed beagle takes three doses of cannabis extract per day, of the full spectrum type, meaning the extract contains “the full spectrum” of cannabinoids present in the plant. Since cannabis has strong anticonvulsant properties, the weaning off Gardenal is still in process, “because sometimes things happen that are unplanned, out of routine, that destabilize her, and we need to hold the Gardenal dose a bit,” explains Renata. Watch Dr. Neide's video commenting on the case:

“But cannabis is the big difference in her treatment, because today she has the same personality she had before the seizures,” she emphasizes. Going further, the owner expresses that the dog “couldn't practically live. When she used Gardenal, she enjoyed life less, spending the whole day as if she were sedated.” And she adds: “another very important thing, cannabis helps her have better quality sleep at night. She used to sleep little, and so did I.”

Renata, an Exemplary Owner

It's not just the animal's life that changes with the illness; the owner's life changes too. Renata's sleep, for example, was compromised, as well as trips, changes in routine, and receiving visitors. “If she is more unstable, I can't leave the house or leave her with someone else, because not everyone is willing to stay with her, right, because of the seizures. Now she doesn't have them anymore, but before, since she did, I had difficulty finding someone willing to stay with her so I could go out. Even today, I don't leave her alone. Neither her nor the other, I don't leave them alone,” she reported.

Attentive and proactive, however, Renata takes responsibility and takes various actions that weave a network of therapeutic care around her pet. One of these actions was temporarily preventing Flora from playing with other dogs, like two neighboring dogs. “For a while, I had to cut out the playtime, so as not to excite her. That was very sad because I had to take away something she liked, just so she wouldn't reach that excitement,” the loyal owner lamented.

She takes such a stance because she understands that it's better not to rely solely on medication: “cannabis, I think, is a fantastic therapy! But the person has to understand, right?! The person has to understand to prescribe, and the animal's owner, in this case, has to have control over the animal too, has to know the animal, because it's not a therapy that you just give and that's it, give that dose and it's done. You have to get to know the animal, you have to manage it. I still have to control her emotions a bit,” she pondered.

“When I know a visitor is coming, I adjust the dose a little. When I know I'm going to travel, I adjust the dose a little,” she exemplified, justifying that Flora “is a different little dog, her coat is already different from a typical beagle. So, for example, now, during this Carnival holiday when we went to the beach, everyone stopped to see her, saying 'how different she is, how cute she is,' and she goes to everyone. But that, in a way, stresses her.”

For this reason, besides adjusting the dose, it's necessary to take care of the environment, so as not to stress her. “A therapy alone doesn't do it, doesn't have all that power, because it all depends on her emotional state,” she considered. “I don't go to crowded places with her,” she adds. On the other hand, as seen, going to the beach was beneficial, and Flora returned much better: “she enjoys it a lot! She jumps, dives, catches waves, does everything!”

“As Dr. Neide herself says, everything works out because the therapy is fantastic, because Flora responds well, and because I have a responsibility for this, right?!” she acknowledges. And she reinforces: “the time to give medicine is the time to give medicine. If I can't go somewhere to travel because she will get too excited, I don't go. I monitor her quality of life because our quality of life is the same. If she's doing well, I can live better too.”

“Today I can receive visitors at home without worrying about her emotions. I can change the routine, I can travel,” Renata celebrates. Before, “everything that was new to Flora, everything that was out of routine, destabilized her emotionally a lot.”