Fight with Porcupine

[Huckleberry]

So much for a fun snow shoe hike.... Bandit found a porcupine and got into a fight. My screaming thank god scared away that monster. Bandit had a couple of needles in her nose and mouth which I was able to pull myself. I cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide and trippled checked now to see if any more needles are in her nose.

Is there anything else i need to do?

[NorCalLabLuv]

Aw, poor Bandit! I would clean it off with alcohol as opposed to H2O2. I was told recently in class that it is more effective at killing bacteria than H2O2 is. Wouldn't be a bad idea to ring the vet and make sure you are covering all your bases. I'm not sure if they would suggest an antibiotic or not.

I hope she heals up quickly!

[PopTop]

OUCH, not a critter Bandit should mess with.

Would think a quick call to the vet would be good. Make sure antibiotics are not needed and what they recommend for cleaning.

Will Bandit learn from this, probably not.

Sending healing prayers.

[mckjen]

Oh No!

I'm glad you were able to get the quills out.

My husky/shep female had her only porcupine encounter when she was 14- only 2 quills..one in her ear and one in her eye brow. Needless to say I let the vet take them out.

Ruby has been porcupined 2x. The first she and one of the neighbor's dogs got it good. I guess they were protecting our pacel of boys from teh monster. Ruby even got one in her tongue. DH was working so we headed down the vet...passed the neighbors on our way back up the hill -their guy had some in his paw! Last time was an after hours vet call...but hey we clipped her nails and pulled some mats while she was under.

[Huckleberry]

I talked to the Vet and she said I did the right thing. I should keep an eye on her nose and if there is any swelling, i should take her in.

I doubt Bandit learned her lesson from this but thank god it was only Bandit and not all three dogs

[ShoalsRebel]

Oh, no! I hope Bandit is ok! That must have been scary. It is a good thing your screaming detered the little "prick"!

[Ruger's Mom]

Poor Bandit!! Hope she is ok.

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by ShoalsRebel

Oh, no! I hope Bandit is ok! That must have been scary. It is a good thing your screaming detered the little "prick"!

I should have known that there was a porcupine in the woods behind my house since I saw pawprints in the snow. And that monster wasn't little, probably about 30lbs heavy. It was just sitting on a tree laughing at us

You should have seen Tattle and HuckFinn... they were both hiding behind a tree because I was screaming like a nutcase

[Bailey's_Mom]

Yikes!!! I've never had to deal with that issue, thank goodness! Glad that your screaming scared the little monster off, though, and that the other two pups decided to hide rather than join in with Bandit! That would scare the heck out of me!!!

[nmaho]

Yikes 30 lbs thats huge.

[Snowshoe]

I have never heard of porcupines fighting a dog or anything else. They move about as fast a sloth and their only defense is to curl up or maybe give warning swats with their tails. Is that what happened? Or did your dog jump on top of it?

When our ESS jumped right on top of one she got hundreds of quills in her face, chest, legs and feet. 212 to be exact, we counted them, at least the ones the Vet got out. Thank heavens none in her eyes. The Vet had to knock her out to get them all out and it took 2 hours. He said quills are greasy and dirty and he did give her a shot of antibiotic as a precaution against infection. He missed some and quills were moving through her body and coming out in unexpected places up to a year later. We got to be quite cautious when we pet her, poor girl. She did this once more some years later and back we went to the Vet.

When my first Lab bumped into a dead porky I just pulled out about 10 quills myself and did not Vet. They were in her foot though, a nose might be a trickier spot.

I'm sure Bandit will be OK. I bet she does it again first chance she gets. Darn dogs.

[mckjen]

this is Ruby after her first encounter -the time she had one in her tongue...there is no way she would have let anyone take them w/out being sedated

[Huckleberry]

Oh no... Bandit didn't look that bad but she really trusted me to pull them out. I kept checking her mouth/nose today and she seems fine. We were really lucky it didn't end bad.

@snowshoe... Fight is a bit dramatic, I know. It was more like Porcupine at the tree, Bandit trying to bite it.

[gundogpa]

Sounds like you were lucky...........yelling is effective sometimes.....

I have been involved in some massive quill pulling sessions, they are no fun.

One place folks sometimes miss is inside the dogs mouth, especially the roof of the mouth. Make sure there was not one in there and it broke off leaving a piece in the mouth.

[aday]

OUCH!!!