One afternoon in July it was business as usual for Wildwoods, until…

Our porcupine patient interrupted in the middle of its dinner

We received a call about a porcupine that had been spotted wandering around the parking lot of a local shopping center in Duluth. Normally, we are unable to pick up animals ourselves (we just don’t have the funding or manpower) but given the type of animal we thought it best to investigate the situation ourselves. The porcupine was rather lethargic and upon closer examination we could see a large patch of quills missing and the skin looked angry and red.

This porcupine is missing most of its quills

After a more thorough examination at Wildwoods we discovered he also had two infected gashes on his back. Something had definitely gotten hold of this porcupine. We cleaned the wounds and applied an antibacterial ointment daily. He also received pain medication and antibiotics for a couple weeks.

Most of the quills have grown back and the injury is looking a lot better

His wounds healed beautifully, but we couldn’t release him until at least most of his quills had grown back. If we had set him free before then he would have had no defenses against predators. It took almost two months but the quills grew back and the porcupine was released!

The porcupine is ready for release and tentatively checks out its new surroundings