As much as my pet loves to travel she has not come across a porcupine yet, thank goodness, because porcupine quills are a very sticky problem. If your pet has a few porcupine quills stuck on them, you can help him get out of this sticky situation. However, if they have a lot of porcupine quills on them you may want to take your pet to the vet for a special anesthetic that removes porcupine quills.
Here’s what you can do to prick porcupine quills out of your pet. First, get some gloves. Porcupine quills can jab and hurt when trying to touch them, make sure the gloves are thick enough to protect your hands. Next, keep your pet calm. Being stuck with a bunch of porcupine quills is not fun and can make the nicest or calmest pet upset and edgy. Some pets may try to roll around to free themselves from the porcupine quills, so you will need to calm them down and get them to stay still long enough for you to prick the porcupine quills out. Talk in a reassuring voice to help calm your pet down.
When trying to prick porcupine quills out of your pet, don’t use scissors. Cutting porcupine quills out of your pet may cause some of the quills to jab into your pet’s skin when they are cut off. Plus, you can end up cutting a lot of your pet’s hair trying to cut porcupine quills out. Porcupine quills are difficult to remove because their points stick into your pet’s skin. So instead of scissors, use pliers or large tweezers to prick out porcupine quills. Be sure to gently prick them out, it will still cause your pet some pain but yanking or pulling them out can cause some serious pain for your pet and can damage their skin. If your pet seems to be experiencing serious pain, take them to the vet to have the quills removed.
You can apply some Betadine Solution after removing the quills to reduce the risk of infection and other problems. Some porcupine quills can be very long while others are small. Be sure you check for those small porcupine quills that are easy to overlook. Rub through your pets’ hair to do this or you can take your pet to the vet to make sure all of the porcupine quills are gone.
Many times porcupine quills get stuck in your pet’s mouth because pets tend to go after porcupines with their mouths wide open ready to bite. Porcupine quills stuck inside of the mouth are very hard to see and even harder to remove. Quills inside of the mouth are also dangerous because your pet may swallow them. The best thing to do if your pet has ended up with a bunch of porcupine quills on them is to take them to the vet to check for any that may be stuck inside of their mouths.
