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 (the vet wanted to do a $1500 surgery to figure out what the lump was).

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

[DiamondJubilee]

I’m so glad it wasn’t found by one of my ponies! I don’t think they would have been patient enough for me to remove them from their nose without sedation. What a good pony you have!

[atr]

Up on the mountain, getting quilled by a porcupine was something of a rite of passage for new horses. The onesthat got repeatedly quilted were usually pretty dim bulbs TBH.

I think i only had to call the vet once, and that was because they were all up in his whiskers and he wasn’t keeping still enough for me to discern what was quill and what was whisker.

[Kyrabee]

My horse met a porcupine…sticky wicket, that one. It was years ago but the horses were pastured along a drainage ditch that came out of the foothills (a pretty open, wild place). I went to feed and could see something on his muzzle. I couldn’t tell what until I was up close .

He would not allow me to remove anything…no, no, no. I called the vet and said I was bringing the horse in and the receptionist was trying to tell me the vet didn’t have time for that …I freaking don’t care…I need him tranquilized and I can remove them. Vet was more than happy to help me when we got there. I don’t remember the exact count but I think it was mid-20’s. We did give him penicillin and some bute and he didn’t even swell too much. And…he didn’t interact with any more porcupines. Good horse.

[Alex_and_Bodie_s_Mom]

OP, like you, I had never seen a porcupine in the wild either, until one day I couldn’t find my greyhound, Babe. She was always in the barn to greet me in the morning, so I knew something was wrong.

“Something” turned out to be Babe mistaking a porcupine for one of the possums she so dearly loved to kill. (I hated that habit, but she had a grab-shake once-kill method that meant you never had time to stop her from doing it.)

The vet pulled 200+ quills from her. She had them EVERYWHERE. In her nose, in her mouth, in her ears, down her chest and front legs. All over her face. In her eyelids. Under her eyes. Down her throat, even. The vet said it took nearly 2 hours to make sure he got them all.

Poor porcupine didn’t make it, sadly.

[DiamondJubilee]

Oh wow! 200 quills and in her mouth! I couldn’t imagine. My girl has a very strong prey drive and also chases and kills what she can get a hold of. I’m glad she didn’t take a bite of the porcupine, I think my husband was able to get to her before she really could thank goodness.

I have seen many porcupines in the wild, hit on the side of the road, so I know they are around. I’ve just never seen one on my property as we are close to a busy road (like our farm is literally 20 ft from a 80km/hr busy street). So I was surprised we had one under our camper!

[GoodTimes]

Only 30 quills is lucky! Hopefully she learned her lesson!

I’ve gotten lucky. Current dog has a high prey drive, she’s been skunked a few times. Every porcupine encounter has magically been while the leash is still on or we were loud enough that by the time we got in the vicinity I could see it going up a tree. She’s older now and has slowed down.
Next dog will be a GSP though so I’m predicting my luck may run out. Hopefully the pointing instinct will outweigh the versatile prey drive.

I know one guy with a drahthaar whose life mission is to kill every porcupine he came across. He’s gotten into a handful of them now. Hundreds and hundreds of quills removed over the years.
Another friend had to load her three big LGDs into her utility trailer to get them to the vet for sedation so they could remove the quills.

[DiamondJubilee]

I’m hoping she learned her lesson, but for some reason I doubt it She is actually very smart, but has such an insane prey drive and is so stubborn, I have a funny feeling she would gladly chase and investigate again if it happened to stop by again.

We were very lucky and I’m so glad it was just the 30 quills. She was also so good for me to remove them, she never moved or made a sound. Some even bled a bit but shes a tough girl, thats for sure.

I couldn’t imagine having to remove hundreds of quills, especially in the mouth! That was the first placed I looked on my girl as I thought she might have tried to take a chunk out of it, but I’m thinking she must have just hit his leg or tail as the quills were quite small and there were so few of them.