Porcupine Encounter

J

jonnyB

Well-known member
It happened the first five minutes of the hunt...

Max is on point and refuses to move. I walk up and attempt to grab his collar and he lunges towards the prey.

He then backs out from the thick weeds with a snoot- full of quills!

He won't let me remove the spikes in his nose (can't imagine why not) so off we go to a vet 45 miles away, on a Saturday morning. He is drugged and the removal process begins, which takes about 30 minutes. Some of the quills are difficult to remove and the vet twists the needle-holder to pull them.

Max is revived and we hunt the afternoon without incident. However, every time he points, I fear another encounter with a porky.

The farmer announces that two other hunters have had the same experience this season! Hopefully this dog learned his lesson and can avoid another "encounter."
 
jonnyB said:
However, every time he points, I fear another encounter with a porky.
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Lol. Yep. He'll go after another if he bumps into one.

My buddies Setter found one a few years back. I watch his dog get a muzzle full of quills only to go back for more. After I pulled the quills we had to leave the area because he wanted to go back to mess with the porcupine again.

Glad to hear your dog is doing well. Keep at it;)

Nick
 
Find a road kill, put the ecollar on and a leash, head towards the dead porky when he goes to investigate give the dog more jolt than normal. Otherwise they will find more and you will have the same problem. It worked for me on 6 dogs I have did this with. Good luck.
 
Two of my setters have pointed porkies, but held and came to me when called. I thank my lucky stars for the fact that they came to me [screaming my lungs off] instead of busting in. I heeled them off, leashed them to a tree and went back to dispatch said porky. It's amazing what an ounce of #8's from a 20 ga. will do to flesh at close range!

Max, my current setter pointed a skunk as a young dog. I walked in to the grass clump to flush, stuck my boot in there and out pops a black fur covered head, with a white stripe down it's back. I backpedaled like Sam Shields covering Megatron! The skunk just waltzed away.

This season in Iowa he pointed and as I walked in to flush I could see the tall grass moving. Something told me not to stick my boot in there. Max busted in and back peddled as a snarling raccoon charged him. Almost got him by the nose. I got him out of there, made sure my companions and the other dog were clear and dispatched the coon.

Knock on wood I never have to visit the vet because of a dog with full face of quills, etc..
 
never been quilled but did have a golden get skunked on day one of a SD trip. Not sure which is worse..
 
keep some good duct tape on you and when they get quilled duct tape their feet together "hogtied" then they cant fight you while you pull them
 
jonnyB said:
Could you pull the quills yourself? Or was a vet necessary?
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pulled the ones I could...all the ones in his mouth and gums I had to let the vet take care of. second time I got all of them except one that broke off and had to let the vet grab that with his little tool. pretty common I guess so now we belong to the club
 
This dog had them up his nose and wouldn't let anyone touch them, until he was almost out cold and the vet could operate...

My first dog had two encounters and I managed to pull all of them in the field - not this dog!
 
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Thanks, Patrick. Apparently two other hunters had encounters with "porky" - not sure what part of the countryside, but it happened a couple of times.

Have not had a problem since sometime in the 70's, with the first dog, and that was in No. Dakota.

My radar is way up now!

Happy Holiday's...

Jon
 
I hunted in MT earlier this year with a buddy of mine.
Day one all 3 of his GSP bit into a Porky. All 3 dogs had to be knocked out at the vet to remove quills. I was really bad, inside the mouth.

The next day we only had to take 2 of the to the vet for the next round of quill removal. :(

It sucked. I hate those things and so far I have never had a dog get into one.
 
Sucks! Been there twice with my dogs, maybe twice with others. Never went to vet but we put a lot of doggie downers in one dog before I could get at her.
Skunks are an annual thing but have avoided them this season knock on wood.
 
one of the things i,ve worried about with my lab. this year in eastern mt she came on point like she does about a third of the time,as i was walking up to her she barked. called her back and sure enough 3 feet away porky in thick weeds. end of porky!! hopefully she does the same next encounter.
 
First time quilled for my dogs this year. Was able to remove them all. Porky population exploded here. Besides the one that quilled my dog, have shot five others this Fall. I would rather deal with skunk smell than porkies.
 
jonnyB said:
Hopefully this dog learned his lesson and can avoid another "encounter."
Click to expand...

That's usually not how it works. I have a setter that's gotten into them on five separate occasions in Montana. It's not just the head/face, either, as she pounces on them and gets a thick stripe of quills running the length of her underside.

Twice she's had to undergo anesthesia and spend the night at the clinic. Fortunately, vet fees in northeastern Montana are about 1/10th what they are here in California.
 
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