My little girl is laying low today after getting mixed up with a porcupine two mornings ago.  We live in a secluded area in the woods next to a lake and she normally stays in the yard.  It was early in the morning when I let her out and a little later I heard her screaming.  She limped, still screaming, into the house. Most of the quills were on her paw, some on her chest.  It was too early for the vets to be open and we didn't want her to stay in pain thrashing around so we had to take the quills out ourselves.  Last time they were on her chin and in her mouth. Both times it was not easy to get them out, poor thing.  I think she may have learned her lesson, at least I hope so, because she is definitely staying nearby and not wandering off at all.

Poor baby, she is just beautiful. Thanks for the pics

Ouch, I hope she learned her lesson. I wish my old dog would have learned his lesson about skunks after being sprayed in the mouth several times. Yuck. But no such luck.

She looks really bummed! Still beautiful, though!

Porkys are such a bad thing. Our Robin took one on 6 yrs or so ago and was quilled all over the nose,tounge,lips and eye lids.She was really afraid and ran off into the woods.It took us two days to find her and she was sooooooo glad but to hurting to really show it.This was july 4 ,2007 or so and the vet came in and de quilled her, $300 please! She has never even looked at a porky since but has killed a bunch of coons,squirrels,birds,and chipmonks! Sounds slike you (and she) got luckey!

Wow, Robin really had a terrible ordeal. You must have been worried sick about her. I don't know what we would do if Evian went missing that long, thankfully the most she has ever run off for has been an hour and that was very stressful.

Well Evian, Sorry to say but according to Michigan's Dr. Pohl the pain from Porky quills is no competition for the extasie(I don't know, best guess) rush of chasing the little bugger down! In other words, the fun will make them forget the pain. This theory is from the many repeat customers he gets. Must be a ton of the little rodents in the middle of the mitten. Good luck! She is a pretty girl.

Hughie is right - the thrill of the chase far overcomes the memory of the quills...My Sasha girl from many, many years ago got into porcupines all the time - always in her snout. The frist time, we took her to a vet, off hours. He anesthetized her, saying, as she soon went out, "guess I didn't need this much anesthetic - told us she would wake up in an hour or so, didn't for almost 24 hours. All he did was use pliers like things to yank out the quills. A week later, she came home with more quills. I was not about to subject her to more anesthesia or us to more vet bills so, using treats, made her sit, stay and I, using pliers, would grab a quill, she would yank her head while I held steady. The quile would come out, she got a treat and onto the next quill.

Repeat scenario numerous times. You may be in for it...

@Hughie wrote:

Well Evian, Sorry to say but according to Michigan's Dr. Pohl the pain from Porky quills is no competition for the extasie(I don't know, best guess) rush of chasing the little bugger down!  In other words, the fun will make them forget the pain.  This theory is from the many repeat customers he gets.  Must be a ton of the little rodents in the middle of the mitten.  Good luck!  She is a pretty girl.    

Robin was quilled so badly in the mouth that she couldnt drink. The vet said one more day and she would have died.
I agree that they LOVE the chase,our two cats know all about that,but Robin knows they belong here and if she catches them she just sings to them!

I personally think Dr Pohl is a butcher and wouldnt let him near my large or small animals.Just MO.