Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Porcupines and dogs

No porcupines in the marsh.

I had two dogs encounter a porcupine while camping up on the Little Lost back in the 90s. Lips and noses, one dog much worse than the other. I held the dogs while my uncle tugged away at the quills with a pair of channelocks. I thought their lips would come off before the quills came out. Poor dogs...they had ways of bringing disaster upon themselves, though. Especially out in the wild.

Doggy ERs are all a rip off, but they know suckers like us will pay it to help their pooches. Luckily we don't have those Prickly 'Possums around here.

Have hunted considerably over various dogs over the decades. The dogs that immediately tried to bite porcupines were all pointing dogs, ranging from GSHs to Viszlas--and all of them bit porkies the next time they found one. One of them (a GSH) was taken immediately to a vet to be sedated and have the quills pulled, but one was evidently so deeply imbedded that it was missed--and eventually worked its way into the dog's heart--killing him during a hunt.

Haven't seen such aggression from flushing dogs, especially retrievers. They've sniffed the porky, and if they got any quills at all evidently learned from it, and never got close to one again. (This has often NOT applied to skunks....)

But would like to hear from others about whether their whether their experience is similar.

Sad note: I had a young pup when living in Colorado. Little dude got into a quill pig bigtime. Cost me a handsome vet fee I could NOT afford at the time.
He was doi h fine, until I noticed his left eye becoming cloudy and festered looking.
It was a quill the vet didn't get and was working it's way out through his eyeball.
I had to.put him down. I couldn't afford another vet bill and was NOT going to allow him to continue suffering.

I don’t bother porcupines and enjoy watching the little slowpokes. I can’t blame an animal for trying to do what it does, especially when they do what they do simply defending themselves.

To bear hounds porkies and skunks are the same —a hound kills the first one and then ever afterwards they never touch another one or they kill everyone they can find.
Duct tape the front legs together if you have to and then one guy holds head while laying on body of dog. Pair of welders mitts helps—don’t bother with baking sofa or clipping quills—it’s a waste of time. Get a close fitting pair of pliers and—here’s the important part—pull the quills one at a time. You’ll be tempted to pull 5 or 6 or 20 at a time but don’t do it. Sometimes it’s a long tedious job.
Only dog I was unable to pull quills out of was a husky and that dog needed to be shot anyway.

Porcupines in this neck of the woods must be cyclic or something—back in the 1980’s I could kill 6 a day and then one day they were all gone—I mean disappeared for like 20 years. Only lately have I started seeing them again with some regularity.

Same here.

And no, they don't learn that lesson. In fact the dog I had went after the second one harder.

Pulled 'em myself.

This is the first time any dog of mine had a serious porcupine encounter. The Labs would get a few quills in the nose and learn from the experience. I'm not sure why the spaniel was so aggressive; it was out of character for him. I think it may have been the small size of the porcupine.

Porkies are far harder on cattle than on dogs, if the porkie gets baled up in a hay bale.

One summer we had several square miles of BLM burn off just behind the ranch I was working on. I spent the rest of the summer killing porcupines and tossing them out above the irrigation ditches where the swather (hay harvester) does not go.
About a half dozen of the hapless little bastards.

I have pulled Quills, out of a lot of dogs, with no ill effects, but the worst porcupine injury i have ever seen, was a horse with Quills in his rear fetlock, we pulled the Quills, but the fetlock swelled up huge, we did everything the vets told us to do and spent to much money on the horse, we finally turned him out to pasture, he stayed fat but was never sound to use. the rest of his life. Rio7

Read Jim Corbett's, books about man eating Tigers, in India, he said most man eaters are caused by a Tiger, trying to kill a porcupine, and being disabled so bad they couldn't hunt. Rio7

It is more fun to pick up a porcupine than shoot it…

Not my dog and I don't know who's it is/was, this was sent to me by a friend.

No scheitt?..... and they don't even have to be baled.




If you think it's fun to try to get quills out of a dog, try getting them out of an 1800 lb longhorn that won't fit into the alley or chute.....

Last one I had with horns that big, my processor refused. He said it would not fit in the chute to the kill floor. And they do not take "farm kills" anymore.

I had to load him back in the trailer and then call out a mobile processor. I probably would have done the same for one with a snoot full of quills.

Shoot them on sight if they are anywhere near cattle or where dogs might be.

In the forest, I try to follow the old rule of leaving them alone.

They are pricks.....

I haven't been around as many pointing dogs as flushers, but I have seen several Springer Spaniels and Labs get mouthfuls of quills. Some dogs can be calmed down and controlled well enough to extract the quills, but others have to be sedated. The sedation is the expensive part of a vet visit.

After my Lab had a bad encounter with one years ago, I quit giving the spiny bastards a pass. Can't see any benefit to having them around.

Jerry

That's very interesting Mr. Deer. Thanks