Hey Deanna, sorry to hear of your( Gunther's) too close encounter w/ the porky pine!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I'm curious if it was hard to remove the quills. I've heard it can be a b^*@h to get them out. Did you need to wear leather gloves? I'm really surprised to hear that the quills are soft, did this make it harder to remove them?

Quills are barbed on the ends. I've heard that they should be rotated to help close the barbs. I talked to a lady in Idaho that had to retire a JRT because after the first porky hit, the dog would go balistic and keep trying to kill it. After that first time, the dog lost interest in anything but making war on the pincushions.

My understanding is that: the quills have multiple arrowhead shaped barbs at the business end of them and that for this reason they can't be pulled out backwards because some of the barbs become so embedded into the flesh that they will dislodge into the animal since the shape of the tip facilitates forward motion only.

Is this true? It's something that I have always wondered.Also the reason I w as so surprised to hear that the quills are soft. I guess I expected a more arrow like structure overall.

Well, round two of porcupine heaven ensued tonight. This time to the tune of a $220 trip to the emergency vet. My foster dog had at LEAST 300 quils in her lips, muzzle, nose and cheeks. The ones in her legs and chest came out easily and were soft like what I mentioned with Gunther, but that must not be normal, because the ones she had wound into her face were hard and pointy on both ends.

She took a full mouth bite... the evidence was in the roof of her mouth and cheeks. They ended up having to cut a lot of them out of her cheeks because they had gone so far in that there was nothing left to grab.

Cutting the quills does seem to help with removing the superficial ones.

At any rate, she is fine aside from the fact that she is walking like an american show shepherd from being sedated!

Sounds like the dogs are losing <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> Glad my dogs have not had the "pleasure" of running into one of those guys. Skunks are what I need to worry about. I've been lucky so far but my time is coming....

Hi everyone,

I love hearing these porcupine and skunk tales - we have nothing like thay here in the U.K.

Blue my shepherd did bring a hedgehog into the house once but other than that he only has next door's cat to chase

So sorry about the high vet's bills Deanna. How big are these porcupine things - I've only seen them on T.V. Are they the size of a small dog maybe?

Gwen

Gwen, they are about 2-3 feet long including the tail. Just big ugly rodents with specialized "hairs" to protect themselves. Skunks are smaller. At this point I would be happy to see a skunk instead of a porcupine. I know how to get rid of that smell without a trip to the afterhours clinic.

Seems they were out in force. I was the second quill dog last night. The other dog got there just before me. A rather large pit bull. His were not as severe though...

Karmen, yes, sadly I think the pricklypigs are winning the fight around here <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Poor thing - my childhood dog was nailed really badly once - muzzle, tongue, throat and chest, hundreds of them. All were the hard type quills. She had so many that infection was the worry. I saved a few quills, will scan and post another day. My brother had a few stuck in his sock, no penetration tho.

Hope your foster feels better soon.

If you live on the edge of civilization I think "crittering" your dog is a good idea.

Well Vancamp, I live IN city limits.... less than a mile from Wally world, and about 1.3 miles from Home Depot. Yes I live on a farm with 22 acres, but I am not that far from civilization.

Both dogs will recall off of critters, but both times this has happened at night. My floods only light up a small portion of the closest paddock and both dogs are dark. If I have the floods off I can see the dogs better, but still can't see the vermin. Not to mention Gunther will only crap in the tall grass, which is on the outskirts of the floodlit area.

I also suspect the culprit was actually in the barn from the way both dogs acted this morning. I had someone try to break in through my downstairs door, which is in the barn, last spring, so I don't really want to attempt to keep the dogs out of there at night either.

I bought my closest neighbor, who lives on the edge of the woods, some ammo... and set up a hav-a-hart trap. What I am gonna do with it once I catch it, I dunno. I found a recipe for porcupine sammiches. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />