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Dogs Try To Befriend Porcupine And Things Don’t Go As Planned

Peggy Gamblin had never encountered anything quite like that. Bentley Nicole and Bullwinkle, her two dogs, had gone exploring around her farm in Brown County, Texas, during the night and came across a porcupine on their land.

There was no doubt who won the fight when Gamblin saw her pets whimpering in misery the next morning.

When terrified, a single porcupine may have upwards of 30,000 quills, making the friendly herbivore a terrible foe – as Gamblin’s dogs discovered the hard way.

Gamblin hurried her puppies to the doctor, where hundreds of quills were removed in over an hour and a half. Bullwinkle, a Boston terrier, is getting better, but he’s still healing from his ordeal.

“It was terrifying,” Gamblin told The Dodo, “and we’re still going to the vet once a week since he had a staph infection.” “He’s making progress.”

It’s not unusual for dogs to have run-ins with porcupines, as Gamblin discovered, especially in the summer.

DOVELEWIS VETERINARY EMERGENCY AND SPECIALTY HOSPITAL

Dr. Jennifer Gorman, a veterinarian at DoveLewis Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Hospital in Portland, Oregon, notes that because of the longer daylight hours and milder nighttime temperatures, dogs are more likely to stay outside later. However, stumbling upon the wrong creature at dark or morning, when porcupines are most active, might teach you an unpleasant lesson.

“Dogs who are interested about other creatures or protective of their humans or territory are more likely to get quilled,” Gorman explains to The Dodo.

When it comes to self-defense, the prickly rodent is somewhat docile. The quills are focused on their backsides, where they lie flat, and are covered in silky hair, but if the small mammal feels threatened, her spikes come to attention.

DOVELEWIS VETERINARY EMERGENCY AND SPECIALTY HOSPITAL