By Alexandra Thomson,
VMD, PVESC
A common emergency presented to the Portland Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Care hospital is porcupine quilling. Porcupines are common in Maine and other parts of the northern United States. They are nocturnal creatures and are typically non-aggressive.
If your dog is quilled, you should bring him to a veterinarian for removal. Quill removal is typically painful; therefore, removal should be performed under sedation or general anesthesia depending on the severity. You should not attempt removal on your own as quills can commonly break and become embedded within the skin. Additionally, your dog should be prevented from rubbing at the quills if immediate removal by a veterinary professional is not possible. As a majority of quillings are located within the face, an e-collar can be used at home until a veterinary hospital can be reached.
Once you bring your pet to the hospital, sedation or light anesthesia will be administered depending on the severity of the quilling. A skilled technician or veterinarian will remove the quills using surgical tools such as hemostats. After all visible quills are removed, palpation of the area will be performed as some quills may become embedded in the skin and are not visible on examination. Depending on the location of the quill, a small incision can be made to retrieve these quills, or it may be advised to monitor the area as quills can eventually migrate out of the skin.
Following removal, your pet may be prescribed pain medication such as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory if the severity of the quilling indicates that medication is required. Antibiotics are often not prescribed as quills have a natural antimicrobial quality.
There is always the risk of quills that are unable to be felt and could migrate despite best efforts to remove them all. These are known as complicated quillings. Unfortunately, diagnostics such as radiographs are not advantageous as quills do not appear on radiographs. At a specialty hospital, we have skilled veterinarians who can use other diagnostics to visualize quills that may migrate throughout the body. A recent case involved a patient who developed a new heart murmur (abnormal blood flow heard in the heart) following a quilling. The PVESC Cardiology team performed an echocardiogram which visualized a quill within the heart. It is important to continue monitoring pets at home for any signs of lameness, discomfort, lethargy, lack of appetite, or any changes in their normal behavior following a quilling.
Please keep in mind that although one would hope that our pets would learn their lesson, it is not uncommon that a dog who has been quilled once will be quilled again. To prevent this from happening in the future, keeping a dog on leash early in the morning or late at night may help to prevent an encounter with a porcupine again.