Newbie and need advice

[feathersrun]

Hello everyone,
I joined this site mainly to get some advice. Dh and I operate a small hobby farm and at present only have 3 head of cattle (lost our shirts last fall selling 11 head to market). THe youngest memeber of the herd decided to check out the rogue porcupine yesterday and is now bristling at the mouth, he waighs between 500-600lbs. I would like your humble opinions on how to deal with the situation. I have contacted the vet (vet prefers not to tranquilize in cold weather) and he said rope him and start pulling, a friend up the road says squeeze him between a wall and a gate or two gates and start pulling.
What are your ideas?

[PureCountry]

Welcome to the site feathersrun. I'm sure you'll learn a great deal from this forum, as long as you take what you need and leave the rest - if you know what I mean.
To address your quill problem, my advice would be to get the calf in a chute or headgate, but if you don't have one, definitely squeeze him up between a solid fence and a gate. Tie the gate to the fence behind him, and it would really help to get a rope halter on his head. To pull quills properly, you want to grab them at the base, where they penetrate the skin, and grip tight with some good pliers.
Sometimes they can be in there real good, so they'll take quite a tug. This is where the halter comes in. It's a lot easier to pull them with the animals head restrained. If you just grab the white part of the quill, there's a good chance it could break off, leaving the black 'tip' embedded in the animal. This can cause infections because that tip will fester in the skin. So make sure you grab the black part as low as you can as I said before. Other than that, all I can say is take your time, and try to keep the animal as calm as possible. The more stressed they get, the more dangerous a task like pulling quills can become.
Good Luck.

[feathersrun]

Thanks, this is as much as I suspected. My husband and I are definitely in for a treat. I will print your reply so dh can read it. We have antibiotics to shoot him with when we're done (oh joy
;{ ) Wish us luck.

Monika

[rkaiser]

Very good advice Doctor Michelin, Doctor Hankook, or that other tire name doctor that starts with G.

[kato]

I've removed many a quill from dogs, and the important thing is to make sure you get them all. Look inside his mouth, and check his legs and chest to make sure he didn't get a swat from a tail.

The broken ones can migrate, too, so try really hard not to break any.

As for tranquilizing in the cold, that's the first time I've heard that, and I work for a vet. Would he let you bring the calf to the clinic? A shot of Rompun would make the whole experience a lot better for everyone involved, especially the calf. Those quills hurt big time when you pull them out.

Hope it works well. Let us know.

[DaneG]

I have found that the quills in the lips are easier to remove(especially broken ones) by getting ahold of them on inside of the lip and pulling them inward, sometimes hard to see but easily felt by running your finger between gum and lips,also seems to go a little smoother if you can blindfold the animal

[feathersrun]

Alls well with Bambino, it took us longer to set up a containment unit than it did to pull between 30-50 quills (lots of goober made it look like more). He's out with the girls today and seems to be fine. Never thought of blindfolding him though must try that if it ever happens again.
From the location of the quills it looks like he tried to sniff porky as the quills were all located to one side.
Thanks for the advice. Dh thinks he'll check out this site himself {it's a first for him be nice }
Monika

[kato]

Welcome to Agri-ville. Glad it worked out OK.

[bombay_43]

Glad everything worked out feathersrun!

Kato, I notice you stated you worked for a vet. Have you ever heard of other methods that work on quills?

We were told that each quill has a vaccumn inside it. In extreme cases where it is near impossible to remove them, cut off the end of the quill, and pour vinegar on it. Supposedly the vinegar causes the quill to shrivel and eventually fall out.

This was suppose to have come from an "old indian trick"! (not meaning to be politically incorrect)

[wilagro]

When it comes to any animal larger than a dog...I say 'get the vet'. I had a cow with dozens of quills and I was so intimidated with the thought of fighting with a 1600 lb. animal that I took the easy route. Sure it cost me 95 dollars, but the job was done right.

[countryguy]

I'd sooner pull quills out of a 1600 pound animal than my Rottweiler.LOL

[WoolyBear]

We pulled quills from a 550 lb calf (give or take). Put it in the squeeze, pulled up a straw bale seat, brought out some hemostats and went to work. She didn't move a bit (Guess I got lucky), and 50 or so later I was done. Gave her a shot of Pen LA, and Boroform on the nose. Gave her one last look inside her gums with a finger and let her loose. Boy was she glad to get back to her mom.

[grassguy]

Always seems to me people make too big as deal of porcupine quills. A headgate is sure handy though, snub them so they can't swing their head.Dogs are tougher I think, but if you put them in a calf cradle with their head out the headgate you are way ahead.

[cakadu]

Little dogs are tougher to do than big dogs. Our Jack Russell got into the porcupine and the Maremma came to save her. Of course the Jack got a few in her nose and the Maremma took the brunt of it and had quills everywhere. It took us about 2 hours to get the quills out of the Maremma, but at least he was relatively easy - he just wanted the things out. The Jack on the other hand, was snapping, snarling and wiggling the whole time.

Kato, you can probably attest to this - our vet said that there are far more bites from small dogs than big ones.

Fortunately for us, the sheep never seem to bother the porcupines. Touch wood, the dogs haven't been involved with one for quite some time either.

Welcome to the site feathersrun. I hope you find it an enjoyable, informative experience.

[feathersrun]

I have decided after this experience that if I see a head gate come up at auction for a reasonable price I'm buying it.