Mannford Pit Bull Smarting From Encounter With Porcupine

A dog in Mannford found out he wasn't as tough as he thought, when he encountered a porcupine.

Porcupines are unusual in eastern Oklahoma, so it's not every day a dog is going to run into one of them.

Just like the bulldog in Blanchard did Sunday, a pit bull named Roman found out Thursday morning that he was no match for a porcupine in the woods near Mannford.

8/2/2012 Related Story: Blanchard Bulldog Recovering After Painful Porcupine Encounter

Roman's owner, Josh Barrett, said, "He's a big baby. He's afraid of thunder."

But when he saw the porcupine and took a bite, he learned a lesson about how porcupines survive in the wild.

"He came up on the porch, face full of quills," Barrett said. "It was all over his head, down the back of his neck, on his chest, down both legs and in between his toes, and in his mouth."

Barrett pulled out about 100 quills at home before taking him to the vet.

"The big thing is, in Romans case, there were a lot on his face, but inside the mouth more than that," said Veterinarian Bill Mitchell, of the Bristow Veterinary Hospital.

The quills are about the size of toothpicks, and they're not poisonous—just painful. But so many quills all over the face and in the mouth can prevent an animal from eating.

After more than an hour of surgery to remove all of the quills, Roman is going to be fine.

"It's not quite like a fishhook, but they get pretty deeply embedded in the skin," Mitchell said.

Mitchell said it's only the second or third case he's seen in 25 years of practice, and he's still never seen a porcupine.

Roman was cleared by the vet to go home Thursday night with some medication for pain and swelling.

Check out reporter Emory Bryan's Facebook page for more pictures of Roman.