PORCUPINE!! Dammit!!

Dogs alerted on something, and just HAD to go outside. I knew better and said as much, but got overruled by the wife unit.

The ACD came back unscathed (likely because he got skunked at point blank range last year, so he now leaves little critters alone), but the Aussie Shepard came back with a face full of porcupine quills!

Didn't even know we had any of them around here. But hey, we've got every other kind of critter imaginable around here, so why not them too, right?

Let me tell you, getting porcupine quills out of a dog's face is no easy chore either! Especially the ones that get inside their mouth. It was all the wife and I could do to hold that dog down while we were getting them out! Those babies are stuck in there good!

What a formidable weapon that critter has! Holy Cow!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Love your threads mate , they give a Brit a glimpse into a whole different world.

Hope your dog's OK and he learns his lesson.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

There must be a good porcupine recipe and good use for those quills.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Yikes! How many quills are we talking about? Ten? Twenty? More?
That sounds so traumatic for your pup. I imagine you'll have TWO dogs that don't mess with small critters now!

originally posted by: Trueman
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

There must be a good porcupine recipe and good use for those quills.

The quills make excellent freshwater fishing floats, I had a few as a kid



Agreed with Gortex, TV and movies are one thing, but it's nice to hear about daily rural life in the US from a real person 'on the ground', as it were, S&F

originally posted by: MerkabaTribeEntity

Agreed with Gortex, TV and movies are one thing, but it's nice to hear about daily rural life in the US from a real person 'on the ground', as it were, S&F

Me too, loving FCD-threads! Has some grounding effects on me lol

a reply to: new_here

He got about 2 dozen quills stuck in his face, nose and mouth, so I guess it could have been worse. I've seen pictures of way worse. They were all hard to get out because they were really stuck in there good, but the ones inside his mouth were the worst to get out. They must have hurt like the dickens because holding him still to get those ones out was near impossible.

He had a couple that went clean through his lip and were stuck in his gums, and a couple others which were stuck vertically in the roof of his mouth. Getting them out of his nose and inside his mouth were the most difficult, and we had to use pliers and some surgical clamps.

We got all of them except for one completely out. One broke off, but we didn't notice it until later when we were looking at the quills so I don't know which one it was. We'll have to keep an eye on him for swelling

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
Poor dog. I hope it's okay. Getting those barbed quills out really is hard.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Dogs alerted on something, and just HAD to go outside. I knew better and said as much, but got overruled by the wife unit.

The ACD came back unscathed (likely because he got skunked at point blank range last year, so he now leaves little critters alone), but the Aussie Shepard came back with a face full of porcupine quills!

Didn't even know we had any of them around here. But hey, we've got every other kind of critter imaginable around here, so why not them too, right?

Let me tell you, getting porcupine quills out of a dog's face is no easy chore either! Especially the ones that get inside their mouth. It was all the wife and I could do to hold that dog down while we were getting them out! Those babies are stuck in there good!

What a formidable weapon that critter has! Holy Cow!

Take him to the Porch....gently get him to peek his head through the door way.......slowly and gently close the door on his neck....just letting his head thru...close the door right behind his jawbone ....you will find this locks his head gently in place without really hurting him...you can close it enough to pin him in without cutting off his air or hurting him ....keep him pinned there and start pulling as you talk to him then apply disinfectant or saline water and you are on your way....try to to make it to soft an experience you want him to connect bad experiences to those quiils and every time you pull a quill SAY QUILL so he gets a connection.

Ive done this several times it works great...sometimes the Quills get inside their mouth and throat and nose....everywhere....its always sad to see.....but as you will see this method makes it pretty easy to control him as you get them out.

Your dog should trust you,it will calm down once it realises you are taking quills out,but like I said dont be o mushy about it or the bad memory connection will not work and you need that.....I had a good Dog that was extra smart.....a face of quills once then 3 times limping with paws full of quills....lol....the 2nd time he came home quilled up he went and sat by the Porch door and waited for me....sucker figured out the Program....like the misbehaving Boy in the olde days who would go get Dads belt before he even got home and hand it to him as he walked through the door.....lol...lol....thats when you know Spanking wont work anymore....lol.

Being in a rural area is nice most of the time. Even in a small town we get wildlife on occasion. A couple of weeks ago I saw a woodchuck outside our fence. I think it's living under the neighbor's shed. A rabbit comes in on occasion, and the family of squirrels in one of our trees are fun to watch. Several years ago we had a possum that somehow ended up in a bucket on the deck. It appeared to be injured and was hissing pretty loudly so I tipped the bucket over and went to bed. The next morning it was gone.

No porcupines though, I wouldn't want to get near one of those.

a reply to: HalWesten

Like I noted in the OP, we've got about every critter imaginable right here on the property. Resident herd of deer on the property (a couple really nice bucks too!), antelope, coyotes galore, turkeys, pheasants, doves, snakes (lots of snakes), skunks, raccoons, rabbits galore, badgers, hawks, bald and golden eagles, great horned owls, prairie dogs, and sometimes cougars (neighbor shot on inside his garage),...and now porcupines. About the only thing we don't see too much of here is elk and bears.

did he kill it? My two German Sheps just killed a ground hog the other week but the old boy "Fritz" got a chunk of his snout bit off and "Shnitzel" our young one was the one that went in for the kill shot grabbing the bugger by its head and shaking it until its neck broke. Had to get the corpse checked for rabies and Fritz's nose will never be the same poor old guy, he's pushing 10 and still hates "invaders" in the yard.

Damn Dogs.

Hope your hound recovers fast and next time barks to warn instead of bites

Oh my gosh!!

I have a German Shepard & Boxer/Shepard mix they too have messed with the animals that wander into our yard. Skunk, Armadillo, Raccoon, Hog, Road Runners, Tortoise, but so far no porcupine. Yikes, I just did a search on dog vs porcupine images couldnt post due to it hurt me to look at them.
Hope he recovers well.







“ I am so cute”

a reply to: SeekingDepth

These little critters will do some damage, and fast!

I didn't watch the 2nd video, but that pretty much looked like Rhode this morning. About the same amount of quills.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I've seen dogs lose eyes to porcupines. Your dog got lucky. It'll be alright. Maybe next time it'll think twice before trying to get a hold of one.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Poor baby! Is he feeling better? I wonder if the pierced areas still hurt.

a reply to: new_here

He's been pretty amped up today, so we're thinking he's pretty good.

He crashed after we pulled the quills and napped for about 3 hours during the time when he'd be most active, so we knew he was in a little bit of shock. He was pretty scared when it happened; he didn't want anyone to know this, but he was. When we got the quills out he crashed and burned on the couch for a long time. (totally not like him)

He's all happy now, but we're still keeping an eye on him.