What my dog was doing when we found the porcupine
A friend and I were hiking in the woods near my house (I live in a very rural area on acreage) with my dog. He ran off a little bit, exploring. When I called him, he barked, but his bark ended in a squeal of pain! Each time I'd call him as I moved toward him, he'd bark then squeal. I finally found him and he was thrashing around in a thicket of raspberries.
I panicked so much I couldn't find the trail back and it ended up taking us over an hour to get him out of the woods. In the meantime he threw himself onto the ground and pawed at his face, breaking off more quills as he did so.
What I did to help my quilled dog
Burke had over 100 quills, mostly in his mouth - the roof of his mouth, his tongue and his inner cheeks. They were baby/young porkie quills, very tiny ones and so many of them! He also had them all over his snout and in his paws - from pawing at his face.
We went to the vet immediately - there were just too many for us to consider removing them ourselves. It was $550 for the sedation and quill removal, emergency vet fee (it was 5pm when we got there, of course!) and antibiotics and pain medication.
Lessons Learned
- We hope Burke has learned his lesson, but our vet and numerous neighbors and friends say that they don't always learn to avoid porcupines.
- We are giving him homeopathic Silica and quills have been emerging from his face for weeks now! We have been able to get these ourselves with our fingers or hemostats - when he is calm or tired. One came out of his paw after a bath.
- Homeopathic Ledum for puncture wounds and Hepar Sulph for infected spots have also helped him in healing from the quills.
