How to traumatize your dog 101
So a man calls the office and says his dog was quilled last night and he would like the dog checked in case he needs antibiotics. He says he pulled the quills himself but just wants the exam. I make space for him in the afternoon schedule. When he arrives we notice that the dog is limping. OK that isn't good news. Cut to the exam room where he tells the doctor the dog had hundreds of quills in his face, in his mouth and his neck as well as some in his paw. The doctor couldn't do a good exam because the dog was now extremely head shy and snapped a warning. They couldn't get a good look at the paw either but it is assumed that there are still some quills causing havoc which is responsible for the limp. (that wasn't mentioned in the phone call) He will now be back tomorrow so we can properly anestitize the dog to get a good look and pull what may be left.
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My mistake? Assuming the dog only had a few quills in the first place. A dog owner might pull a few quills themselves but usually leave seriously quilled dogs for us to deal with.
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WTF was this guy thinking? How painful that must have been for that poor dog?? For those that don't know, quills do not pull out easily. They have backward facing scales which help them stay in the skin. Pulling them out takes some force on the pullers part. (And it is a myth that cutting them lets air out so don't try it. It only leaves less for us to hold onto.)
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My lesson in all of this is to ask more questions next time and to get the dog in earlier. Time could have been saved had I realized the severity of the dogs incident with the porqupine. I also learned that not every owner considers the pain involved for their pet during a quilling incident. I mean, he knew to come in for medication but he put the dog through hell to get to that point. Besides the physical pain that dog has gone through, it is possible that he may become leery of his owner as well as others around his head from now on. Wouldn't you be?
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Perhaps he was trying to save himself from a large vet bill. Unfortunatly a pretty high price was paid for it by his dog. I cannot imagine putting my dog through that much pain to save a few dollars, which in the long run it didn't. The dog still needs to be anestitized for us to get a good look and get the rest of the quills out. It might be ironic if it wasn't so sad.
