Just need to be prepared. I used to watch Grandpa pull the quills out of his dogs' nose and mouth. I don't want to put my dog through that. I have a decades old porcupine nest in an old oak tree on my land. I know it's occupied as I have seen her. I don't want to kill her. I will be moving to the land in spring, and just know what's gonna happen to my Aussie Mix. How do others handle removeing quills from a dog? Thank you! BTW..before you say it...no my dogs will not be running loose. But you know Shephards and Bassets, if there's a will there's a way and I won't have my eyes on them every moment of the day.

-- Susan in Northern LP Michigan (cobwoman@yahoo.com), February 07, 2002

Answers

Hi, I've removed lots of quills from dogs. :) The least painful way, and quickest, is to push DOWN on the skin around where the quill entered and pull the quill out with the other hand. I just used my fingers. This really works and makes it a lot quicker and easier for everyone.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 07, 2002.

Susan,

I don't know what you know about porcupines but they are very destructive and can be vectors of disease. My advice to you as cruel as it may seem would eliminate the porcupine yourself or find someone else to do so.

-- Katie S (cashcrop90@yahoo.com), February 07, 2002.

They will meet up sooner or later if you leave the porcupine I'm afraid.

And the only thing you *can* do is pull the quills out. You can't leave ANY of them in, they tend to work in and will get infected. if you take the dog to the vet they will usually sedate it for the job. We live so far out that we just hold the dog down and get the pliers.

Also, if you have other livestock, you are going to have to worry about them too. Cows and horses tend to be curious, and will walk right up and stick their nose on a porcupine. So will goats.

Sorry, but IMO, your best bet is to get rid of the porcupine. They will eat the tops out of your trees and kill them too.

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), February 07, 2002.

Good bye Ms. Porky. The strong survive. Dominion over the animals and all that. Guess I have to bite the bullet and take care of my own by deciding who lives where. Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it!

-- Susan in Northern Michigan (cobwoman@yahoo.com), February 07, 2002.

BTW, How do I kill her? Ask my brother with a gun? Ouch, this is gonna be hard for me. But I have to learn to do the unpleasant as well as all the "good" stuff if I am going to live out there. Thanks again.

-- Susan in Northern Michigan (cobwoman@yahoo.com), February 07, 2002.

you dont have to kill it,, it mostly comes out at night,, or very early morning. I have a few around,, and have only seen it once during the day,, eating out of my birdfeeder. It knows when a dog is around,, and will usally avoid them,, but if your dog is out at night,,then it can get tangled,, but a dog will learn soon enough,, or should anyways. I have zero lose from the trees I planted from porkie,, deer do more damage. If you MUST kill it,, a shot to the head works,,but they DO do some good around the place.

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), February 07, 2002.

Susan, ask your brother with the gun...to teach you how to shoot. You could have him dispose of the porcupine also, for expediency sake. Good luck!

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), February 07, 2002.

Just curious-What can one do, with porcupine quills?

-- Kathy (catfish201@hotmail.com), February 07, 2002.

Some of the farmers around here will snip the "blunt" end off the quills just before pulling them out. This helps release a bit of the air inside, puts less pressure on the barbs.

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), February 07, 2002.

The quills are great for jewelry or leatherwork on which quillwork is going to be done. But to be honest, I am having a hard time with the decision to kill the porcupine. Part of living in the country is learning to leave in harmony with the wildlife , as far as possible (of course I realize there are limits.) The porcupine was there first and isn't bothering anyone. The dog is moving in, and just in case the porcupine sticks quills into the dog- which will only be if it is threatened- you are going to kill it? No offense intended, but I would let the dogs learn some respect for the porcupine.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 08, 2002.

Susan, I don't know about in Michigan, but the porcupines here like the taste of rubber. they chew hydraulics, breaklines, timing belts, fan belts, and tires on vehicles. I haven't had the displeasure of seeing the result of a porc that bit too far into a tire-pretty messy, I hear. I had a friend who had a series of porcs on his property, and he live-trapped them in a metal garbage can, and then brought them 15 miles up a logging road. One was particularily stubborn and smart, and took a liking to the unfinished stackwall house. It like to chew plywood, and there is evidence all over the floor if you look. We chased it off with rocks every morning, the poor thing, but it had staked it's claim. Twice we arrived to every surface in the house with a little stool present as a bit of revenge. We finally trapped him/her. That was last summer. My friend hopes that was the end of it, for a while. The bus that he is giving me has no breaks, or fuel line, and the tires are questionable thanks to the quill pig. If I was you I'd remove it, or kill it. I here they are good eating, the quills, and the claws make good decor, and I'm sure you can think of uses for the bones, and teeth. It is sometimes the only way, all be it sad to harm something that has no hope against a human with a stick. particularly a thunder-stick. I'm not sure that the porc will be happy with a dog around, and I know your dog wont be happy with a porc around. I'm not sure what you should do. Why not live trap it, and send it elsewhere. It might be traumatized only enough to keep it from coming back to your place.

-- roberto pokachin in B.C. (pokachinni@yahoo.com), February 08, 2002.

Won't someone please listen to Stan? Is it really necessary to kill every indigenous animal you come across?

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), February 08, 2002.

A smart dog tangles with a porcupine only once. If he does it twice, shoot the dog.

-- Just Duckie (Duck@spazmail.com), February 08, 2002.

It seems dogs are the single most problem of any animal domestic or wild.Anytime my neighbors are fueding and fightimg it's over a dog or someone killing a dog.I never see wildlife except squirals unless I take a hike far in the woods because all the dogs here either kill or chase them away.And here is a post that suggest killing or removing wild life out of it's habitat because of a dog.Unless a dog works gaurding or protecting livestock,they seem to be more of a problem then a help in rural areas.

-- SM Steve (notrealmail@msn.com), February 08, 2002.

Susan my dear friend, dogs don't learn their lessons. My coonhound/lab mix got it several times and it took at least two people to get all the quills out. They were up his nose, in his gums, in the roof of his mouth. Vets charge a minimum of $1.00 per quill just because it is such a pain. If one is left in it can work it's way into the dogs body. Depending on where it enters it can cause death. Anticeptic is necessary!

Also like Ken (I think said)they are very distructive. When I bought my property I had one here and knew where it was living, in an old hollow Basswood. I had a friend shoot it last yearafter I say the distruction. I love porcupines they really are cute, but... This thing killed several mature Maple and damaged many many other trees. Now I have another one who has moved in. If I could find a Fisher or Martin to do the job I would. I do not believe in killing off the wildlife but it is killing the habitat.

You could try to trap (live)it and move it but it will probably come back. The quills are nice for projects and I know the Native Americans like the gauard hairs for head dresses.

Good luck, Susan

-- Susan in Minnesota (nanaboo@paulbunyan.net), February 08, 2002.

Just a thought here Susan. We have Wildlife rehabbers here in our area who will trap and re locate unwanted critters for people. My area is 'possums, raccoons, squirrels etc. One of our members specializes in porkies. You might call your Fish and Wildlife people and ask about this. They might even help you out themselves, or could give you phone number of the Wildlife rehabbers. It is silly for people to expect you to shoot it if you don't already handle firearms. I have several weapons and use them if I need too but would not suggest that someone without training and experience start shooting at things. And then there is your feelings on the matter. Good luck, it is a puzzle isn't it? LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), February 08, 2002.

My 10 year old daughter shot one out of our tree with a .22 rifle last summer.

It was dinner for my neighbor's bobcats that night, so it didn't go to waste.

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), February 08, 2002.

Susan-

Do what you want! We all have our veiw points on it. Weigh out everything and decide what you can live with. Also fishers up here in N.WI seem to like squirrel,song birds and rabbits better than porkies for some reason.

I eliminated one porky last year and have another one I thought had gone when it saw me shoot the first one but, it has come back and is raising havoc chewing up my maple sugaring shack and my tool shed.

-- Katie S (cashcrop90@yahoo.com), February 08, 2002.

I don't think you'll have to worry about the basset. When they were first bred it was found that next to the bloodhound they have the best sense of smell in the dog kingdom, but they don't have the gumption to do anything but track, they won't kill or try to kill what they track.

-- Paul (treewizard@buffalo.com), February 09, 2002.

The reason that a dog will tangle with a porcupine again is that they are mad they got quilled the first time so they get madder with each unsuccessful try.

As for listening, "yeah, I hear ya!" And I do agree with NOT killing the offending animal because of its habatit or niche, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere.

Have you ever seen a dog in pain from porcupine quills? Well if you haven't I suggest you look at some pics or ask someone. Go whine to PETA!

-- Porci (quills@porcupine.net), February 09, 2002.

Something I forgot to mention is that porkies don't like ammonia. We had one chewing on an a-frame cottage, I spotted him one night and took a bottle of windex over to where he was chewing. I sprayed down the plywood where he was chewing, and then reached under the cottage and gave him a squirt. Porkie shot out from under the other side and went headlong down the hill, left the cottage alone after that.

Take a look at the situation first, if porkie isn't hurting anything, probably no need to kill it. They're basically very placid animals, relying on their quills for defense. If there are a lot of coyotes in your area, he may stay up in the trees most of the times, as coyotes are one of the few predators that can eat them. They take the chance to get a paw under them, flip them, and eat them. We had dozens of porcupines around our area til some coyotes moved in, they soon brought the populations of porcupines, raccoons and groundhogs back down to normal levels. Now that fisher have moved in, we're lucky to see a porcupine.

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), February 09, 2002.

I think this is a fine thread, as it brings to bear a lot of tough moral questions. I am extremely opposed to killing of animals for reasons I don't consider good (I, along with everbody else, gets to decide what constitues "good", of course). For example, I am opposed to hunting and I do not consider hunting a sport...but I do kill animals. I kill them to eat them. I don't consider it "sport", but living.

Porucpines are my one absolute exception to this. Here in the north, as well as in places referred to by some above posters, these animals are etremely destructive. They are responsible each year for the deaths of hundreds of wolves and hundreds, or possibly thousands, of dogs.

"Dogs don't learn" was written above. Blanket statements are dangerous. Some do, some don't. Some dogs learn after one encounter. My one remaining malamute got absolutely clobbered, first time. She even was on leash, but she lunged for Mr. Porky before I knew what was occurring. I jumped on her immediately and started pulling. I counted 89 quills out of her jaws, cheeks, lips, gums and tongue. She was lucky - none broke off and stayed inside.

However, that encounter engendered in her revenge. For the next year, she would turn into a hellion every time she smelled or saw a porky (this is the calm dog who looks after my chickens, remember). Sure enough, another porky waddled by front door about 10 months ago, and Vox got it.

This time, she learned. She now goes "Whoa, not me" any time a porky is around.

Now, Stan (I think) said, "These animals do some good." Is that true? What? I never have learned of any. They destroy young trees, prime trees and old trees. They destroy carnivores (okay, in the very long evolutionary sense, they are weeding out the dumber carnivores. Not a good enough reason for me). They are NOT a prime source of food for any carnivore, fishers included. I leave out any detrimental effects they have on mankind and our tires, wires, buildings, etc.

Traditionally, we in Alaska did not kill porkies for one reason only: as they are so easy to kill (a sharp rap across the snout with a heavy stick), they were considered survival food for the lost. That situation no longer holds, so I do know there are very very few Alaskans who do not kill them whenever we get the chance.

And that's the view from the North.

-- Audie (paxtours@alaska.net), February 09, 2002.

It seems to me I read you can soak the quills after sniping the ends in vinegar or ammonia, I'm not sure which. Its to make the quills soft so they're more forgiving as you pull them. You mike practice on some to see what works.

-- raymond l gray (rorlgray@graytv.com), February 11, 2002.