Mauli the lab-mutt will be fine.....200 or so quills, a drive from Seward to Soldotna and back, $324 vet bill, and $40 in gas, she better be fine.  

My wife and some friends had pulled quite a few quills before i got home from work, but the dozens in the lips and roof of her mouth and snout were too painful for to deal with.  Vet sedated her, and I did the bulk of the pulling with some assistance.  Mauli wowed the vet with her apparent tolerance for pain, valium, and morophine, because despite repeated dosings, she never went to sleep and was awake through the whole thing.  Had a few that were through and through her lips, and a couple that pierced her tongue.  

I am glad that my dog will survive.  I am REALLY glad that all the stories of having to put dogs down because the quills will work their way in vitals and kill the dog are untrue.

Though it was kind of odd that in all this time I never seen a live porcupine on the road before, much less hit one, but the day my dog gets a faceful of quills, I tag one.  If this was some sort of test, I failed, miserably, but my sense of vengence has been satisfied, though I feel like shit for killing something for no reason other than revenge.  

So I guess I will not go on with my plan to annihilate the porcupine race.  A vendetta against them would be empty and self serving and unjust.  Long live the porcupine for he is a mighty creature and worthy adversary.  

That and a war against the porcupines would only result in a needless reprieve in my continuing efforts to spread death and destruction among the squirrels.

Blessings on you for your tolerance.  Most people I know kill any porky they see though they have no use for them and it always iritated me.  However if a porky just did that to your dog I couldn't hold it against you to take out atleast one.
I hope your dog gets better soon.

Odd thing is that even after such an experience, some dogs just do it again the next chance they get - some dogs just don't learn.

Ah porcupines.

The rule of Alaska, at least in the old days, was that one is not supposed to kill/hunt porcupine.  Porcupines being as ubiquitious as they over much of the state is supposed to be the "emergency food" should one be in the remote and run out of food.  That's probably from the old miner and pioneer days.

It's amazine what they can eat.  I have seen them chew through fat communications cables and watched one in amazement as it munched away on fiberglass insulation.

Sheesh, I thought mongoose were bad.  Hope your dog recovers fully.

When my dog was young he had a thing for socks and towels.  One day he got a hand towel down but not out.  Total vet bills after two surgeries and mucho medicine was easily over $1500.
Morale of the story, don't get a dog big enough that he can take things off of the counters

I am pretty sure she is going to be alright, but I am concerned that since she gets to have canned dog food while she is recovering, that she might think that she is getting a treat.

But oh well...next time is the old hog tie and strap treatment.

Welp, got the dreaded "someone was playing with something they shouldn't have been" phone call at work again.  I at first thought the boy had gotten into the markers again, but noooooooooooooooooooo.  Mauli the wondermutt came home with quills again.  I really should have gotten a pic, she looked pathetic, and how she did not get blinded this time I have no clue.

Well instead of the trip to the vet, I went "old school" on her, hog tie, bit, and pliers.

My dog is a damn good dog, she took it like a champ as I could only imagine what she was feeling.  I had a couple friends come over and help and that was a big plus.  Hpefully this time she will learn her lesson as the de-quilling experience did not involve all sorts of groovy drugs.

No porcupines will die this time around.  

Once a dog bites a porcupine they will always go back and bite it again and again, no porcupine will ever be safe again.    

Damn, not again! How do you get them out anyway?  Is it just a quick yank?

The hard part is immobilizing the dog.  at 56 pounds, mauli is still capable of lifting my near 300 pound fat ass off the ground.  I hogtied her a couple different ways just to have her break free when I got to the really sensitive ones in the front of her lower lip.

The quills are barbed, but the barbs are small, a good grip with the needlenose and a quick tug, about like a staple.

She did not have as many her this time as last time, but they were all around her eye, many of them went in, bounced off bone and were pulled out tip first.

The past couple days I have found a couple here and there that have worked thir way through and were pulled out point first from her lips.

Needless to say, both incidents were not the horrible disfiguring slow death to dogs that I have been told about and it only took about an hour of dilligent work to fish the bulk of the quills out, the hard part again immobilizing the dog.  A friend of mine said that a dog's forelegs are flexable enough to be tied behind their backs without undue strain, so if there is a next time, I may go that roue as hogtying was only marginally effective.

Quoted: Odd thing is that even after such an experience, some dogs just do it again the next chance they get - some dogs just don't learn.

It's not a matter of "if", it's just a matter of time...