Emma VS. Porcupine

 A friend of ours who has a Gordon Setter from our kennel, sent me this picture of "Emma" who recently had a dangerous encounter with a porcupine, while hunting south of Spokane, Washington.

Maynard sent me the following in an email:

 Emma VS. Porcupine

We were hunting a long finger of very tall grass in the middle of a wheat field when all of a sudden, Emma went on point. We couldn't see the bird so I told Donny to start kicking up the grass in front of her. Nothing came up, so Donny said,"Emma, get it up"! She moved in, and next thing you know, she's lying on her side, pawing her face. Donny moved forward to help her and almost stepped on a porcupine. She's 7 years old and this was our first porcupine, so I didn't know what to do.

Emma not only had quills in her mouth but also at least 3 in one  of her eyelids. She squirmed around in the tall grass until she was able to get her mouth closed, then I had to go in and drag her out of the tall grass and into the field where I could look at her. Initially, it looked so bad, I thought I'd lost my dog, or at best, I'd end up with a one - eyed huntin' dog. She got lucky that none ended up in her paws so she could still walk. We were about 2 miles from the truck and I never would have been able to carry her out. It could have gone really bad.
Talk about a dog with heart, she hunted her way back to the truck!  LOL  The vet said I should have named her Lucky, she got to keep her eye,
Now I have to do some research on the net as to removing quills from a dog*, so I'm better prepared if there is a next time.




*NOTE: HOW TO REMOVE QUILLS - NEXT BLOG