Can CBD Help Dogs With Seizures and Anxiety?

Could adding cannabidiol to a dog’s epilepsy treatment help with both seizures and anxiety? For families managing unpredictable episodes, the question reaches beyond how often seizures happen. Recovery time, emotional distress, and the ability to enjoy ordinary activities also matter.

A case report published in Heliyon explores that possibility in a dog whose epilepsy remained poorly controlled despite two antiseizure medications.¹ After veterinarians added cannabidiol, or CBD, the owners reported longer intervals between seizures, faster recovery, and improved situational anxiety over 18 months of follow-up.

The findings are encouraging, but their value lies in the questions they help sharpen. One dog cannot establish whether CBD reliably produces these benefits. The case does, however, illustrate why future research should measure the whole experience of epilepsy, including what happens between seizures.

Why CBD Is Being Studied for Canine Epilepsy

Epilepsy involves recurring seizures associated with abnormal electrical activity in the brain. “Idiopathic” epilepsy describes cases without an identified structural cause, sometimes involving a suspected genetic contribution. “Refractory” means seizures remain inadequately controlled despite treatment.

CBD is a cannabis-derived compound being investigated for its effects on seizure activity. The central veterinary question is whether adding it to an existing treatment plan produces meaningful improvements without introducing unacceptable adverse effects.

Research in people provides reasons to investigate, but dogs need their own evidence. Species, formulations, and accompanying medications can affect outcomes. Findings involving a particular human epilepsy syndrome do not establish that a commercial pet oil will help a dog.

That distinction also applies to treatment goals. MyCannabis’s recent coverage of CBD research beyond seizure counts examines the importance of broader outcomes in childhood epilepsy. The veterinary question is similarly practical: does an apparent improvement translate into a better daily life?

How the Dog’s CBD Treatment Was Monitored

The patient was a male Segugio Maremmano, an Italian hunting dog, whose seizures began at approximately one year of age. Treatment initially involved phenobarbital. Potassium bromide was later added after seizure control deteriorated.

Despite the combination, seizures occurred approximately every 15–20 days. The recovery period afterward, called the postictal phase, lasted around 20–30 minutes. Neurological assessment and magnetic resonance imaging did not identify a clear structural explanation, and the dog was diagnosed with refractory idiopathic epilepsy.

A separate behavioral assessment identified situational anxiety. According to the owners, visits from a young child were associated with restlessness, pacing, barking, panting, and other signs of distress. Seizures reportedly occurred near some of these encounters. That timing suggested an association, without proving the visits caused the seizures.

Veterinarians added a full-spectrum CBD oil and gradually adjusted treatment according to the patient’s response. Both conventional antiseizure medications continued. This was therefore an assessment of an additional treatment within a combined regimen.

The owners kept a clinical diary, while veterinary follow-up included blood testing and monitoring of antiseizure drug concentrations. CBD follow-up lasted 18 months within a broader 37-month clinical history. Keeping those periods separate avoids overstating how long CBD itself was observed.

What Changed After CBD Was Added?

The owners reported that seizure intervals increased to approximately 60–80 days, averaging about 70 days. Seizures continued, but were described as isolated episodes with a shorter recovery period and a faster return to normal activity.

Situational anxiety also reportedly improved. These changes persisted during follow-up, although two instances of seizures occurring closer together coincided with brief interruptions when the family ran out of CBD.

Why Recovery and Anxiety Deserve Separate Attention

The most useful insight is that seizure frequency, recovery, and emotional well-being should be measured separately. They may improve together, but they answer different questions.

A seizure diary counts events. Recovery measurements describe how disruptive each event becomes. Behavioral assessments examine whether the dog is comfortable and engaged during the much longer periods between episodes.

MyCannabis recently explored CBD and post-seizure brain oxygen in rats, another example of researchers looking beyond seizure prevention. That experiment does not explain this dog’s recovery: brain oxygen was not measured in the canine case. The connection is the research approach, which treats recovery as an outcome worth investigating independently.

The anxiety findings raise an additional question. Did CBD influence seizure activity directly, reduce stress associated with seizures, or affect both? The child’s visits reportedly continued, but that alone cannot separate these possibilities.

A stronger study could track anxiety scores alongside seizure timing and recovery. If those outcomes changed at different rates, researchers would gain a clearer picture of which benefits were linked and which might arise independently.

How This Case Fits the Wider CBD Evidence

The report joins a developing body of veterinary research. A December 2025 pilot study involving 13 dogs reported reduced seizure frequency after CBD was added to existing medications. Eight dogs achieved a reduction of at least 50%. However, the study lacked a placebo group, and alkaline phosphatase, a liver-associated enzyme, increased significantly.

An earlier blinded, placebo-controlled canine CBD trial provides a stronger comparison design. Its importance is methodological: a control condition helps researchers distinguish treatment effects from fluctuations that can occur over time.

The new case adds a longer individual observation and attention to anxiety. It cannot outweigh controlled trials, but it can help identify outcomes those trials should examine more carefully.

What One Dog Cannot Tell Us About CBD

Without a comparison group, the researchers cannot determine what would have happened without CBD. Seizure patterns can fluctuate, and treatment changes made during a particularly difficult period may be followed by improvement partly because symptoms return toward their usual level.

Owner diaries remain valuable, especially for events occurring at home. Nevertheless, expectations can influence observations, and episodes can be missed. This report lacked validated seizure severity scales and systematic video recording during follow-up.

The full-spectrum formulation adds another uncertainty. Because the intervention contained more than purified CBD, the case cannot isolate CBD’s contribution or establish that different oils would produce equivalent results.

Safety conclusions also need restraint. Liver enzyme elevations were documented, including a pronounced alkaline phosphatase increase. An episode of gastroenteritis further complicated interpretation of later blood results. The case cannot reliably assign every change to CBD, existing medications, or another cause.

Continued tolerability in one monitored patient is useful information. It does not establish that the same regimen is safe across dogs or exclude clinically important drug interactions.

Turning a Promising Observation Into Better Research

The next step is a controlled study that follows dogs long enough to capture both benefits and complications. Three priorities emerge:

• Measure seizure frequency, recovery time, and anxiety separately.
• Combine owner diaries with validated assessments and consistent recording methods.
• Track product composition, treatment interruptions, liver enzymes, and concurrent medications.

Treatment interruptions deserve particular attention. The two gaps in this case are suggestive, but they were not a planned withdrawal experiment. More broadly, a regimen’s usefulness depends partly on whether families can maintain it consistently.

For readers considering product claims, MyCannabis’s guide to CBD pet products and veterinary questions provides relevant buying context for Canada. A pet label or laboratory report cannot establish that a product is suitable for an individual dog. Decisions about adding CBD or changing existing medication belong in a veterinary discussion.

This case offers a constructive research direction: evaluate CBD by whether dogs experience fewer seizures, recover more comfortably, and live better between episodes. Demonstrating those benefits consistently, with appropriate safety monitoring, would turn an encouraging individual story into evidence more families could use.

References:

¹ Sacchettino, L., Giuliano, V. O., Borrani, B., d’Angelo, D., & Napolitano, F. (2026). Long-term cannabidiol treatment in canine refractory epilepsy, associated with situational anxiety: A case report. Heliyon, 12, e45696. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2026.e45696