Kramer got the idea from a patient who inquired about obtaining medical marijuana for her pet when steroids and other pain medications stopped doing the trick, according to a recent interview with Vice. Similarly, he claims the drug alleviated his cancer-stricken Husky dog Nikita’s chronic pain and stimulated its appetite. ”At the first dosage, she was up and around,” he told Vice. ”I didn’t cure her. It was just a question of increasing her quality of life and putting off inevitably euthanizing her.”

Kramer also claims THC can help stimulate cats’ appetites, and he told Mother Jones that people have used cannabis to help manage their pets’ inflammation from arthritis. One woman even gave her horse “cannabis-infused butter” to ease the painful swelling he developed from a foot disease called laminitis, Mother Jones reports.

His guide to concocting these home remedies for pets in the form of herbal glycerin tinctures is available for purchase on his website Vet Guru; the sweetness of the glycerin is supposed to make the solution palatable for the animals.