Porcupine encounters

Many people have heard of or seen dogs that had a run-in with a porcupine. While in truth any animal curious enough to check out the slow moving porcupine can earn some new facial piercings (I have also pulled quills out of cattle), dogs seem to do it best.

One dog I will call Snapper was seen on emergency by me early on in the summer for porcupine quill removal. Snapper was a Jack Russel terrier mix who rightfully earned the name that I have given him. Owner Jane had several dogs that occasionally found porcupines that she pulled quills out of, but Snapper, would live up to his name and was in need of chemical persuasion. On this occasion he only had a handful of quills that were easily removed after anesthetic administration and he was on his way.

A short few days later I noticed owner Jane on the book for quill removal again and felt sorry for her because I knew she drove more than 40 miles to get to the clinic. Sure enough Snapper was back at his mischief again, only this time it was a mere 2 quills on the tip of his nose.

Some time passed and I saw Snapper was yet again on the book for another round of quills and I could not believe it. You would think if you touched a hot stove once and it hurt you would probably not touch it again on purpose. Perhaps if you were a very slow learner you may try it a second time, but I would be hard pressed to believe that a third such learning experience would be necessary. I certainly could not count out the possibility of an accidental burn occurring, but I don't know of too many dogs that accidentally brush up against a quill pig.

After another passage of time I happened to mention Snapper to our technician. A quick check in the records showed a half dozen visits for quill removal over a few months time.

For individual event quill load Snapper was far from impressive. To date my most impressive porcupine quill patient was a very large collie named Fluffy. Late one night I received an emergency call to get quills out of a dog's mouth and nose and met owners Fran and Jack. Fluffy was the largest collie, with the most magnificent coat I had ever seen. Sure enough Fluffy had some quills in both his nose and mouth, although there were not many. Fran and Jack reported that they had pulled some at home but he was losing patience and they felt he needed to lie still to complete the job quickly. While injecting the anesthetic into Fluffy's leg, I poked my hand on some other quills and now knew he was hiding more than I had initially suspected. A quick inspection of his body revealed quills extending from his nose and mouth, along his neck, on his chest, up and down both front legs and back almost to the middle of his stomach. As far as I could surmise Fluffy must have attempted to give the porcupine a bear hug. After searching inch by inch through his thick fur for an hour and a half, the job was complete. A total of 250 quills were removed.