My dog and his porcupine friend-the aftermath.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I took my puppy out hiking with me as usual. I’ve been working on training him to stay with me and he’s been pretty good but he has his squirrel! moments. Today he waited till I was 2 hours from civilization before he found a porcupine scent to chase. It took him all of a minute to find a porcupine burrow.

When I got to him he had a face full of quills and was trying to collect more sticking his head in the burrow. I never got a look at the porcupine. I dragged him away and back onto the trail. He whined in the same manner he does when I won’t let him play with passing dogs. I’m such a mean daddy not letting him hang with the critter he just met.

Examining him he had about 20 quills in the left side of his muzzle, all in his upper jowl, none in his mouth or nose. They were rather small, each was only about an inch long. He seemed to be oblivious to them. Being in the middle of nowhere I didn’t have to many options so I went about removing them. 15 of them barely penetrated his skin, simply pulling them they came out with no resistance. The next 4 came out with about as much resistance as pulling out a hair. The last one got him pretty good, it wouldn’t pull out without risk of breaking and I didn’t have any good tools for the job. That one remained till I got back to my truck. No blood involved, for the most part I can’t identify where most of them were. I rubbed some Bacitracin on the general area. When I got back to my truck I pulled the last one out.

This whole time he never indicated he felt any pain. A month ago when he got a sliver in his paw you’d have thought he was dying, 20 quills and not a peep.

So the question overall is what further actions do people think I should take. I’m at home now. My house was on the way to the closest emergency vet. I could still go there but don’t feel much urgency to shell out 600 bucks to have him looked at right away. I could take him to the regular vet Monday. I’m not even sure if that’s necessary. I think he should be given an antibiotic maybe?

If it was me who got hit with the quills I’d probably just pull them out and skip seeing a doctor and wait to see if an infection comes up before taking any further action. As he can’t talk I’ll let the wiser folks here advocate for him.

2

My brother in law has gone through this now and then for many years. He has done just like you and so far no problems. He learned it from his dad who did it the same way. Maybe not the safest but the odds are heavily in your favor I would say.

3

Ohhhh, poor guy, but glad it was relatively painless and easy to deal with. Silly dogs!

Our dog did the same about two years ago, except the porcupine really got him - right in the gums and everything. My husband was walking him and luckily they were only about two kilometers from home, but Khuno kept trying to rub his face on the ground. So, my husband had to run with him. The running kept him from being able to rub and they got home faster. He had to be put under to get all the quills out.

4

Oh, right, for your question. I’d probably keep an eye out for swelling and skip the vet until regular business hours.

5

Dumb pup! Aww.

Should probably be fine. If you see swelling or seeping or it starts to become sensitive, then an infection (abscess) might be starting. You should know by Monday or Tuesday when it will also be more convenient and less expensive to see your regular vet. If he will let you clean it with soap and water and if he can’t readily lick Neosporin off, you could start with that. Or just leave it alone if scabs are already formed.