North America has a rodent that is called the porcupine. It grows to be our second largest rodent--second in size only to the beaver. It lives in the forest and is most active early morning and in the evening. Like other rodents, it is a herbivore. It's biggest feature is its "quills" which are specialized hairs that are stiff and have microscopic barbs on them. It's covered with them, and the tail is the primary "weapon". When an animal gets too close, the porcupine will flick its tail and implant up to 40 or 50 quills into the flesh of the "nuisance". In the case of dogs, it's typically driven into the snout and mouth area--although other areas may be struck, depending on the position of the animals. 
Further, quills may "migrate" into other areas of the body--even puncturing organs--which may cause serious infection or even death. Getting the quills out is no laughing matter!
K-Lee's first exposure to "quill pigs" was when she was about six months old. She came running down the trail with something in her mouth. (I thought she had found something dead and was bringing it to me.) When she got about thirty feet away, I saw the object in her mouth move. It looked at me as if to say, "Hey buddy, can you help me out here?"
She was carrying a very-much-alive porcupine. I reached for the remote and proceed to "trash break" while she was with the critter. It had a good effect as she didn't want to touch it again....and she didn't touch the next one she found.
I held a faint hope that a lesson was learned.
Her second experience was from being too close to one. She picked up a few quills in the foreleg. I removed them easily with a pair of pliers--amid her pleadings and protestations.
Again, I hoped that she was learning about this.
The third happened in the Great North Woods. She got a snoot-ful of quills just at the beginning of a "walk". Needless to say, the order of business for the day changed from "exercise" to "exorcise"!
The vet said,
"This is not going to be a learning experience. Dogs don't learn from this."
Our last experience was with a young porcupine only three days ago in the same part of the country. K-Lee had a good afternoon finding wild birds. She pointed nine and "located" a bunch more that didn't hold. Just before we arrived back at the truck, she dove over a banking and came back with a dozen or more quills in her snoot. Upon investigation, I found several more in her mouth cavity. Expletives were in order, and being the faulted man that I am, I complied. Neither one of us had learned from the experiences.
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| Easy quills were already pulled out by K-Lee |
When you're in the "north country", finding a veterinarian that is available is like finding buried treasure. The vet in our town was out on a house call and wouldn't be available until the next day. By the time I was able to contact vets in Lancaster (1 hour away), they were closed and would re-open for me at 8am the next morning. I finally called LAVES (Littleton Area Veterinary Emergency Services which is open when other vets are closed) and drove to Littleton--about 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 hours away. They quickly took her in and treated her. (K-Lee had already pulled out some quills herself.) The remaining quills were removed, she was probed for any remaining quill "tips", and after we paid the bill, K-Lee was groggily riding in the truck back to camp and a few days of rest.
At least she didn't make the mistake these dogs did....
We who enjoy hunting with our dogs understand that this is a risk we assume. That thought doesn't make it any easier to bear.
It makes me wonder though, western hunters train their dogs to avoid snakes.
Isn't there a way to train our dogs to avoid porcupines?
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