# Porcupined animal what happens?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porcupined-animal-what-happens/675104>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 29, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porcupined-animal-what-happens/675104 "2013-11-29T22:51:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porcupined-animal-what-happens/675104/1 "2013-11-29T22:51:29Z")

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I have recently seen a dog that got porcupined, meaning he went to investigate a porcupine and as dogs typically do, try to taste bite it. As you can guess that dog was enroute to the local animal ER for quill removal shortly. Recently on Animal Planet (TV), I saw that a horse was getting ‘dequilled’ from such a encounter.

Now I don’t blame the porcupine, and in many way feel the porcupine should send a bill to the offending animal for loss of quills, but I am wondering about the fate of animals that are porcupined ‘in the wild’ what is their fate?

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**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porcupined-animal-what-happens/675104/2 "2013-11-29T23:02:13Z")

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> [@kanicbird](#):
>
> I have recently seen a dog that got porcupined, meaning he went to investigate a porcupine and as dogs typically do, try to taste bite it. As you can guess that dog was enroute to the local animal ER for quill removal shortly. Recently on Animal Planet (TV), I saw that a horse was getting ‘dequilled’ from such a encounter.
> 
> Now I don’t blame the porcupine, and in many way feel the porcupine should send a bill to the offending animal for loss of quills, but I am wondering about the fate of animals that are porcupined ‘in the wild’ what is their fate?

Generally, death, if the injuries are too severe for the animal to feed itself - which would often be the case.

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**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porcupined-animal-what-happens/675104/3 "2013-11-29T23:20:47Z")

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> **[Porcupine quill injuries in dogs: A retrospective of 296 cases (1998–2002)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1482438/)**
>
> The purpose of this retrospective study was to identify factors associated with quill injury in dogs. A second objective was to determine the risk of complications and any factors that would predict the likelihood of complications. Hospital records...

1. 

Far better to remove the quills ASAP as the quill that remains inside often causes infection and abscesses - its left unstated that this also causes disfigurement and disability and even death.  
2.  
Untreated or incompletely removed quills may migrate. Migration of quills, similar to migration of other organic foreign bodies (grass awns, thorns etc.), can lead to significant complications (10–12). Grahn et al (5) described 5 cases of ocular complications due to porcupine quill migration; these cases included intraocular and periorbital migration. Additionally, 3 case reports described discoveries in dogs of migrating quills in the humeroradial joint (6), temporal fossa (7), and brain (8).

After a while the quill may be coated in calcium and tolerated…