molly2004 page 9

Molly's Critters
2004 page 9
home   2005

Spike, a male porcupine, was hit by a car on Sept 24.   It was my husband's car! We were driving home from a gig (he's in a band) at 3 AM. Didn't see this guy in time to avoid him. I rolled him into a gig bag with a pair of small leather gloves and watched the bag very carefully all the way home.
Spike had a broken leg and broken jaw. He underwent surgery to pin his broken leg in place, this is the incision. I had to borrow a cage to keep him in, he definitely needed a grate underneath. He's very active and would wet down and ball up newspaper so he was very hard to keep clean.
In answer to the question, how does one handle a porcupine? With these wonderful $150 gloves and a lot of respect. They are very special animals.
We are still waiting to see if his teeth will grow back, if not he will be non-releasable. Since rodent teeth do keep growing there is hope that the damage to them wasn't so severe as to keep them from growing.

Sally came in on Oct 3 while I was away. She was found lying in a brush pile. She couldn't use three out of her four legs, only one front leg. She was like that for a whole week, although the vet couldn't find anything wrong on her x-ray. I was very worried that she would not recover. She was very sad and I could tell she was in pain.
Miraculously Sally regained the use of her limbs, very slowly, one at a time. First she started to raise herself on the one good paw and the other wrist, her right paw still didn't work. Then she was up on an ankle, and that foot still didn't work.   On October 19 she was walking around on all fours. It's wonderful to see.
Sally on Oct 20.

Also sharing the basement rehab room are Felix (above) and Oscar (right). Came in within days of eachother, both with broken wings.
As you can guess, Oscar is the slob. His cage is trashed two minutes after I clean it. Oscar came from Lake George, Felix from Saratoga.
Sally was tranferred to Annie for overwintering. As of Jan 10 she was finally starting to climb. Prospects are good for her eventual release.

Molly's Critters 2004 page 9 home 2005
Spike, a male porcupine, was hit by a car on Sept 24. It was my husband's car! We were driving home from a gig (he's in a band) at 3 AM. Didn't see this guy in time to avoid him. I rolled him into a gig bag with a pair of small leather gloves and watched the bag very carefully all the way home.	Spike had a broken leg and broken jaw. He underwent surgery to pin his broken leg in place, this is the incision. I had to borrow a cage to keep him in, he definitely needed a grate underneath. He's very active and would wet down and ball up newspaper so he was very hard to keep clean.	In answer to the question, how does one handle a porcupine? With these wonderful $150 gloves and a lot of respect. They are very special animals. We are still waiting to see if his teeth will grow back, if not he will be non-releasable. Since rodent teeth do keep growing there is hope that the damage to them wasn't so severe as to keep them from growing.
Sally came in on Oct 3 while I was away. She was found lying in a brush pile. She couldn't use three out of her four legs, only one front leg. She was like that for a whole week, although the vet couldn't find anything wrong on her x-ray. I was very worried that she would not recover. She was very sad and I could tell she was in pain.	Miraculously Sally regained the use of her limbs, very slowly, one at a time. First she started to raise herself on the one good paw and the other wrist, her right paw still didn't work. Then she was up on an ankle, and that foot still didn't work. On October 19 she was walking around on all fours. It's wonderful to see.	Sally on Oct 20.
Also sharing the basement rehab room are Felix (above) and Oscar (right). Came in within days of eachother, both with broken wings.	As you can guess, Oscar is the slob. His cage is trashed two minutes after I clean it. Oscar came from Lake George, Felix from Saratoga.	Sally was tranferred to Annie for overwintering. As of Jan 10 she was finally starting to climb. Prospects are good for her eventual release.