What my dog was doing when we found the porcupine
The first time was not too bad, but this time It was in the fall, late at night and one of the dogs was banging against the door. I opened the door and saw lady had a few quills on her muzzle but buddy wasn't around. I called for him and it took quite a while before he came as we live on a big acreage.
What I did to help my quilled dog
So my husband used pliers to pull the 4 quills off lady's muzzle, but buddy was panicking and pawing at his face. His muzzle, the inside of his mouth was covered with quills. We put both dogs in the jeep and raced to the ER at the Vet Hospital. They sedated Buddy and proceeded to take all the quills out. His fur is black so the quills he broke off with his paw, the black tip was still inside him so it was a very long procedure. Over 100 quills were removed.
Lessons Learned
- From the first time they got quills (4 on each muzzle) you would think they learned. But the second time...I wish that both dogs have learned their lesson to stay away from the porcupine but I am afraid it won't happen. So this fall I have been closing the gate for the back yard to keep both dogs there at night instead of having access to the rest of the acreage which is huge. We will do a walk around the acreage to see if there are any holes on the fence that the porcupine comes in. I don't know what else to do.
