Porcupine quilling is a common emergency in dogs wherever porcupines live. The quills look like a simple foreign-body problem, but their barbed tips make them hard to pull out and prone to migrate. A quill left behind can surface weeks later as an abscess, a lame leg, a blind eye or a pneumothorax.
Key facts
Porcupine quill injury at a glance- Species and system: dog; skin and subcutis, mouth and face first, with possible spread to joints, eye, thorax, heart and nervous system.
- Cause: contact with a North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum). The quills are specialized hairs that detach on contact; porcupines cannot throw them.
- Who gets it: large, young, free-roaming dogs; Siberian huskies, rottweilers and German shepherd crosses were over-represented in the largest case series.
- Classic presentation: a painful dog with quills in the muzzle, lips and mouth, drooling and pawing at its face, often seen after hours.
- Key treatment: heavy sedation or general anesthesia, systematic search of the whole body including the mouth, and removal of each quill intact.
- Biggest risk factor for complications: presentation more than 24 hours after the encounter.
- Rabies: porcupines are rodents, and rodents are not a rabies reservoir; Cornell's canine health center notes that rabies has not been reported in porcupines.
What's inside
12 sections in the full guide- Key facts
- How the NAVLE tests this
- Cause and pathophysiology
- Clinical signs
- Diagnosis
- Differential diagnoses
- Treatment and management
- Prevention, control and public health
- Prognosis
- Quick review
- Test yourself
- References
The full guide also has 4 tables, 3 figures, 3 self-test questions and 15 references, available to NAVLE members.
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