Claudie and I were out at the Reserve on the weekend July 12th and one of the packs we take care of managed to find a Porcupine. Three dogs were just totally covered with quills and unable to eat or drink and a forth, a little female (not as bad) had a few quills in her mouth. Pictures are posted above.
We managed to get two of the four dogs into the Jeep with us. Claudie held the little female on her lap and I put another in the back. He's the first image. We phoned our vet and as luck would have it he was in the clinic on Sunday looking after a couple of animals he had done surgery on the day before. He waited in the clinic for us until we got there. I helped the Vet while Claudie and my son Eric went back for the other two. One little male (the worst), shown in the last image could not be found when they went back but they did manage to pick up another dog and bring it back to the clinic with them.
On Monday morning Claudie and I went back to the Vet clinic and loaded the three dogs back into the Jeep and after dropping Claudie at work I headed back out to the Reserve to take the dogs home. I had with me this time a capture pole and a dog kennel in case I found the last dog.
As luck would have it, just as I was leaving after dropping off the three dogs and making sure they had food and water I found the forth dog. He was just beside a van almost where I stopped to let the three musketeers off earlier. This little guy is timid and although he appears to like females he is leery of men. He wouldn't come to me and stayed just far enough ahead of me that I couldn't get the noose from the capture pole over his head. He took me on a tour of the Reserve for about 20 minutes until finally hiding in a dog house at the back of one of the houses almost where I found him initially. I managed to get the capture noose over his head and literally had to drag the poor little guy back to the Jeep where I had left the cage sitting on the ground. I loaded him up and headed back into the city with him and to the Vet clinic. Because these poor animals are infested with flees I did not feel right asking the Vet to take the dog inside to remove the quills as the clinic had just done a couple of surgeries that morning and were housing other animals inside. Two Vets and a couple of the Vet Techs came outside and after sedating the dog in the cage we removed him and while leaving him on the tray from the cage removed the quills from him at the back on the clinic on the ground. If you look at the picture you can image the amount of quills this poor little guy had in him.
After giving him a shot to revive him from the sedative I left to drive him home. The drive back is almost an hour and I was hoping that this would give him enough time to come back to his senses. As much as I would have liked to keep him quiet for at least 24 hours Claudie and I have no place to keep another animal.
I arrived back on the Reserve and literally carried him to the back of the house where he and the other dogs seem to hang out. He was so swollen and beat up that I really felt bad leaving him. Claudie and I went out last night Tuesday, July 14th and although we couldn't find most of the dogs did find the last little guy at the back of the house. He was still pretty quiet and must be in a lot of pain. With any luck he will be up and around in a couple of days.
