Has your dog’s fur been embedded with countless porcupine quills? Here’s a technique that will get out every last porcupine quill from your dog’s coat.
Dog Attacked by Porcupine; Quills in Coat
My sister’s lab got attacked by a porcupine one day. When a dog encounters a porcupine it will generally approach it from behind, and in the direction of the porcupine’s most adept weapon.
Much to my sister’s discouragement, the lab bounded towards the porcupine, trying to get a sniff of this unusual creature.
As soon as the dog made contact with the porcupine it released its quills, imbedding them deep in the lab’s nose and chin.
Fortunately, the poor dog only ended up with eight quills deeply rooted in her flesh.
How to Deal with Porcupine Quills in Your Dog
Some people believe that a vacuum forms inside of the quill when it goes into flesh.
For this reason people will cut the end of the quill prior to pulling it out.
My sister did not find any advantage to cutting the quill; it didn’t alter the amount of flesh damaged in the removal of the quill; in fact, by making the quill shorter, it actually was harder to remove.
A dog owner really only has a short period of time to remove the quills because the quill’s barbed design causes them to slowly move forward into the flesh.
She needed to have her lab restrained on the floor by family members, and she firmly yanked the quills out of the dog’s nose with a set of needle nose pliers.
She found that steady pressure on the quills removed seven of the eight quills.
The eighth quill broke off after my sister had trimmed the end, making it impossible to pull it out of her nose.
In time, the quill moved through the cartilage of the dog’s nose and came out the other side, some six weeks later.
