Published by: Ingrid King. Last Updated on: February 7, 2023 by Crystal Uys
This post contains affiliate links*
The Anxious Pet is a company dedicated to creating cutting edge products to help address stress in cats and dogs. All of their products are veterinarian formulated. A third party lab verifies product potency, purity and consistency to ensure top quality.
The Anxious Pet’s tagline is super cute and captures what they offer: “Worry Less, Wag More.” Of course, I think it should say “Worry Less, Purr More,” but nevertheless, we were happy to review their Organic Hemp Oil and their Calming Soft Chews.
Organic Hemp Oil
This full spectrum cannabinoid oil may offer numerous health benefits for cats. The oil may support the immune system support, reduce anxiety and nervousness, offer anti-inflammatory effects and support joint and bone health. Oil tinctures are the safest and most effective delivery system for CBD products, and tend to also be easier to give to cats than other delivery mechanisms. The Anxious Pet’s Organic Hemp Oil uses fractionated coconut oil as a base.
The oil can be given directly in the mouth, or mixed in with food. It should be given with a meal that contains some fat for maximum absorption.
Putting The Anxious Pet Organic Hemp Oil to the test
I was impressed with the Organic Hemp Oil. I’ve tried other CBD products with Allegra in the past, and she has not been very receptive to taking them. I placed a few drops of this oil on a small plate, and she licked it right up! I tasted the oil myself, and while it still has a faint hemp flavor, somehow, The Anxious Pet managed to reduce that enough to make it more palatable for cats.
My take on The Anxious Pet
The sheer number of CBD products for pets on the market is overwhelming, and it can be difficult to discern quality products. I’m confident in these products, and I especially like that they appear to be far more palatable than other products I’ve tried.
For more information and to purchase, please visit The Anxious Pet or click on the banner below.
*FTC Disclosure: The Conscious Cat is a participant in The Anxious Pet’s affiliate program. This means that if you decide to purchase through any of our links, we get a small commission. We received this product at no charge, and we also received a fee to feature them. The free product and fee did not influence our review. All reviews on The Conscious Cat will always feature my unbiased opinion, or, as the case may be, Allegra’s opinion. We only spread the word about products and services we’ve either used or would use ourselves.
About the author
Ingrid King is an award-winning author, former veterinary hospital manager, and veterinary journalist who is passionate about cats.
I had a sick cat a couple of weeks ago, and I used pet CBD oil, and this definitely calmed my cat, however, instead of feeding it to her orally, I rubbed it on the top of head and it worked wonderfully.
I am glad that The Anxious Pet has managed to adjust the taste to make CBD palatable. What I’ve used in the past had a strong grassy taste.
I have studied cannabis and hemp-based CBD as healing agents (~40 hours of courses/videos of experts in the field thus far, with an additional 40 hours that I’m working my way through). There is something I’d like cat parents to be aware of that my beloved Heidi developed over a month or so of using a hemp CBD for her aged joints (she recently left me at age 21, still spry).
It is possible – though rare – for either human or feline (likely other mammals, too) to develop a particular sensitivity to any cannabis product (the cannabis family includes hemp, hemp is simply cannabis with very low THC levels). The possible sensitivity is called hyperemesis, and results in severe vomiting when exposed to more cannabis product after the sensitivity develops. (Hyperemesis is actually counterintuitive with cannabis products, as they usually are very good for queasiness, and have been used incredibly successfully to virtually eliminate such queasiness and vomiting and retain appetite when someone is undergoing chemotherapy.)
Again: it is rare. But it can develop at any time, sometimes gradually, sometimes overnight. Had I not been aware of that possibility from what I’d learned on cannabis, I would not have understood what was happening with Heidi when she developed it, where I could quickly cease giving her more CBD oil.
I just thought that was important information to share. And, again: developing hyperemesis is RARE, and should not prevent someone trying CBD or other cannabis products. The benefits of CBD to virtually all living creatures is immense. Insects, I believe, are the only creatures on the planet who lack an endocannabinoid system, meaning ALL other animals are primed to use these molecules for health and body regulation. In addition, CBD can do things like fully treat seizure disorders, aid in general brain health (the US government took out a patent on CBD in 1985 for CBD as a neuroprotectant!), help prevent some tumors from forming or metastasizing, as well as aiding in the musculoskeletal issues you mentioned. So I highly recommend it for people as well as four-legged family members.
And, if you have confirmation that The Anxious Pet’s products contain American-grown, pesticide-free, and herbicide-free CBD that is in the bottles in the concentrations they list, they sound like a great company. [I currently buy certified organic CBD for myself, to be sure of the lack of unhealthy chemicals, as cannabis/hemp is a ‘chemical sponge’ with any toxin in the ground, and the process of extracting the CBD from the plant concentrates any toxins present even further.]
CBD has become such a miracle for all sorts of things.
Ingrid: Looking at $60 per bottle as needing to be super effective before I can justify the expense for 2 cats. What is your opinion on the benefit of the hemp oil? Is it better than the diffusers?
The Anxious Pet guarantees their products and offers a 60 day risk free trial period, Ann. I’ve not heard of using CBD oil in a diffuser, and I caution against the use of diffusers around cats in general.
Ann, I realize you directed your comment to Ingrid, and I second what she wrote. I would add a couple things.
CBD oil is concentrated, but I have not personally seen it presented by itself, it is nearly always in a carrier oil (in this case, fractionated coconut oil). Any oil in a carrier oil is not a candidate for being used in a diffuser. In addition, probably 99+% of CBD in a diffuser would end up not in your cat where it could help, but in the air (and, like any other non-volatile oil, forming a thin film on everything in your house).
I also second Ingrid’s statements on not using a diffuser at all in a household with a pet. Many of the most common essential oils (which is what diffusers are generally used for) are highly toxic to a cat’s liver, or extremely offensive to them, likely offensive because of its toxicity for them (e.g. lavender has been used as a cat-repellant because they dislike it so much and it is so toxic to them!)
But full-spectrum CBD has numerous health benefits for cats, humans, and pretty much all animals but insects (who lack an endocannabinoid system). In contrast to the very healthful full-spectrum CBD, CBD isolates (nothing but CBD remains from the plant) are MUCH less helpful or effective (requiring up to 300x the dose of full-spectrum for the same effectiveness), and generally they have adverse side-effects. This is because there is something called “the entourage effect” where the over 120 cannabinoids in the plant work together for a gentler, smoother, more effective modulation of the endocannabinoid system. Basically, the multiple cannabinoids modulate each-other.
I hope that is helpful.