so I haven't seen the porcupine for days now...

[magical thyme]

and I made the mistake of thinking, as I was doing barn chores this evening, that it has moved on to its winter hibernation grounds.

I was allowed to enjoy that happy thought for a good 10 or 15 minutes. And then Luna came trotting up to me looking for help to remove the couple dozen quills hanging from his chin.

The good news is that with me kneeling behind him with my arms wrapped around him and my hands holding his head still, he let the vet pull all the quills out, without resorting to anasthesia, so he saved me $300. One was broken and is lost inside his bottom lip, but the vet assured me it will work its way out on its own.

The bads news is that a weekend emergency vet visit still stuck me with $120 unplanned hit.

This is Luna's 3rd porcupine encounter in as many years. I'm beginning to fear he will *never* learn to keep his distance from them.

[In_The_Wind]

1. Poor Luna.

Ouch on the vet bill!

[magical thyme]

2. the vet complimented us both

Luna on his excellent behavior during the painful procedure, and me on the quality of holding him.

And yeah, ouch on the vet bill.

[avebury]

4. Practice makes perfect!

I am so sorry for Luna's pain (and your vet bill).

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. I have read, and heard from friends with similar experiences

.
.
.

that most dogs once snapped by a porcupines tail will ALWAYS go after them again.

Keep your dog in sight, or in a kennel/fenced yard (fencing small enough a porky can't get in).

Luna will keep trying to "get even".

He won't win.

CC

[Kali]

5. they don't learn

not about skunks and not about porkies either


secret: the quills will almost always work their way out. if you have help you can also pull them yourself with a good set of needlenose pliers. unless in the eyes or obvious infection/inability to eat they don't seem to bother them them all that much.

[magical thyme]

6. the problem was need for help

The last time he got stuck, I was able to get a dozen or so out myself, but his tongue was totally impaled. He let the vet put her hands inside his mouth and pull many out, but she couldn't hold his tongue still. So she had to tranque him just to be able to get them out of there, and also to feel around right down his throat. He had tried to eat a dead porcupine by the side of the road.

There were probably a dozen of them in his tongue, right smack in the middle. It looked like some kind of piercing. I figured he was trying to keep up with Jakey's tatooed chow tongue, lol.

This time there was one big one all the way through his upper lip and a couple dozen of varying sizes in the lower lip. I could hold his head still or pull out quills, but not both.

The vet was surprised, too, that the porcupine was not hibernating now. I'm guessing because the weather has been pretty warm for here. Tonight it goes down to 20 and tomorrow it will be 14, so hopefully the porcupine will decide to give it a rest and hunker down.