My dog met a porcupine - not the greatest idea

[DiamondJubilee]

So a first for me and a first for my pup - a porcupine! I lived here for 13 years now and have never seen a porcupine before. It was close to our house door hanging out under our big 5th wheel camper. My husband thought it was a racoon at first and my dog went running for it. He then realized it was a porcupine and called the dog who ran over to him and he yelled for me.

I came running out of the barn as he was yelling “porcupine, and the dog met it!”. I put her in the shop right away and saw about 30 quills in her neck/chin/jowl area (luckily not that many!!). I had my husband hold her head up so I could try to remove the quills from her. She was so good and brave and let me pull them out one at a time. I never got a photo of them in her as I wanted to get them out asap, but I took a picture afterwards of the quills. We were both so lucky that it wasn’t any more and that she was a super brave and quiet girl that she let me pull them all out. I was all done in less than 5 minutes, cleaned up her chin and she was back to normal 5 seconds later.

I went out to look for the porcupine, up in the trees, in a shed but could not find it. Hopefully it was just passing through and decided this was not the place for it!! I told her porcupines are not your friends!

Its been a couple of days and I have been watching my dog in case of infection, but no temp, no swelling and you would never even know something has happened to her (she is her crazy busy self!). Phew!

[HorseLover65]

Yikes, glad it turned out well!

[OverandOnward]

So glad your pup is ok! All three of you were so brave to take care of it so promptly!

Of course we always want to treat immediately, and avoid any more serious problems. I think that is the right thing to do.

I do wonder if it dilutes the dog’s learning experience. If their moment of trouble is short-lived, maybe it makes less impact on their memory?

I think this is because my lab was skunked – three times !!! In almost the same location, by the same skunk, the skunk reacting to the same aggressive behavior by the dog !!!

Smart dog in general training. But a flat learning curve re skunks.

Thank goodness we don’t have porcupines around here. He would have totally had an encounter – at least one.

[Incantation]

I am really glad your dog is ok. I have only seen porcupine attacks on the vet shows on tv, but some of them look pretty scary! I am so very glad we do not have them where we live.

As for skunks, our first Mastiff had a run in with one as a young dog and let me tell you, Mastiffs can hold a grudge like no one’s business. She had pretty close to 0 prey drive, but after she tried to politely greet a skunk, and got sprayed for her efforts (multiple times as she then tried to correct it’s behavior), she tried to teach every skunk she saw a lesson. Taking her out after dark became a daring adventure. She must have been sprayed at least a dozen times during her life. Thankfully after the first run in, we found the de-skunking recipe that actually works, and learned to have a hose hooked up and ready for a quick hose off before the spray had a chance to dry!

[OverandOnward]

I have always kept the de-skunk shampoo that works at the front of the first pantry shelf. Which is close to the outside door.

I mean, there are emergencies, and then there is a skunk emergency.

Porcupines do outrank skunks for emergencies, though!

[atr]

Porcupine quills are surprisingly antiseptic. They rarely cause an infection problem. But they are uncomfortable.

They are generally mild mannered creatures who just want to be left alone to go about their business (and are surprisingly friendly and easy to tame, should you so desire. They like grapes as a treat… but thats a whole 'nuther story!) They don’t attack, simply defend themselves.

[DiamondJubilee]

My friend actually just found a lump on the side of her dog which was quite painful to him - he was having problems walking, wouldn’t chase their cat (mini Aussie here so very usual behavior for him). After a bit of a closer look, it was a quill that had embedded almost completely into his side. Quills can be very painful and can migrate into the skin and even into appendages if not removed promptly. She had no idea how he picked up one quill (I’m thinking maybe he rolled on one??). She was able to actually remove it and he was good as gold again.

Porcupines are very non aggressive and pretty ho hum about life. They have the best defense so what is there to worry about lol!

[RedHorses]

My second horse met a porcupine once. He had maybe a dozen quills in his nose. The hardest to get out was the last one (he knew what was coming when I lifted the pliers to his nose) a short quill at the bottom of his nostril. I accidentally grabbed whiskers a couple of times before getting the quill.

[JBCool]

'90s kid can’t help but go here Seriously, tho, glad pup is ok!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaN4V3U1Lzk