Veterinarian To The Rescue: Porcupine vs Dog in Amherst, NH – OUCH!

Finding a veterinarian for your four-pawed family members is important, but finding the perfect vet during an emergency situation is critical. 

My weekly “buy local” blogs help folks new to the Amherst, NH / Southern NH region discover fantastic locally-owned businesses.   You don’t have to be new to the area to need recommendations on fantastic local businesses.  Yesterday, I discovered that even long-time “locals” like me sometimes need recommendations.  I delayed this week’s buy-local blog by a day so that I could share an extraordinary local “find” with you right away. 

This week’s InSideNH shout-out goes to Ponemah  Veterinary Hospital, 199 Route 101, Building 8, Amherst Post Office Plaza, Amherst, NH;  603-673-5300. 

Dr. Jennifer Edwards, Owner of Ponemah Vet and her terrific staff truly came to my rescue this week. 

This amazing local animal hospital treats both the patient and the patient’s family with a combination of calm professionalism and genuine care and understanding that was so refreshing I plan to make this team the primary care center for all of my family’s pets (and we have a lot of them).

Through the years, our family has included several dogs, cats, fish and a turtle or two.  We haven’t graduated to chickens, cows and horses, but there has been talk (oy!).  We currently have 2 Bernese Mountain Dogs (Oxo and London), a Golden Retriever (Clicquot) and a very curious Large Munsterlander (Spinner).  A more appropriate name for Spinner would be Curious Georgette – as she is always exploring, evaluating, is ever inventive and too smart for her own good.     Here is the crew:

Our dogs enjoy roughly 3 acres of outdoor play and roaming area secured by an invisible pet fence.  The fence works extremely well and we’ve had them installed at every house we’ve owned.   The fence is most effective when the little batteries in each collar are “alive”.  Dead batteries create a temptation for curious critters.  I suspected it was time to refresh all batteries and ordered a new set.   They were in the mailbox on Wednesday, aka, Escape Day 1. Oh the irony.

On Wednesday morning 3 of our four-legged friends decided to go on an adventure, Spinner in the lead without a doubt.  She was trained as a bird-hunting dog and loves to go out on-the-hunt….for miles.  The others follow along, tails and ears flying.  There is rarely a positive outcome from these adventures.  I alerted the Amherst, NH Police and the neighboring Mont Vernon, NH Police, just in case the dogs were a bit further away.

By Escape Day 2, one escapee decided to return home.  Spinner and London continued to explore.  I had sightings in three towns over about 15 miles.  It may take “a village to raise a child”, but it took three NH villages and their fantastic Police Departments to locate our missing dogs.  When we finally located them, I was thrilled to know our dogs had been found, but shocked at what we saw.    

Porcupines are not chew toys, or playmates or dinner.    Two of our dogs didn’t understand that and tried to eat a porcupine.  Here is what they looked like post-dinner.   This Video looks exactly like London at the vet yesterday.  

I immediately called our vet in Amherst.   Unfortunately, there was only one doctor in the office Thursday morning and she had another dog in surgery with porcupine quills!   What!?  They couldn’t see our dogs for several hours and recommended I drive 20 miles to an urgent care facility.  I asked for a local vet recommendation but they couldn’t offer one – really, aren’t there circumstances when it is ok to recommend your competition?   No, they wouldn’t.   You can believe I’ll remember that.

The Amherst Police Department recommended a local vet, Ponemah Veteranary Hospital.  This new vets office was just a half mile from the Police Station.  Excellent!  I drove straight there with two “quilled” dogs in the car. 

Talk about a walk-in emergency.   I left the dogs in the car while I checked with the staff to see if they would consider seeing my dogs.  Without a moment’s hesitation the team got to work, checked me in, called my vet for health records, helped get the dogs and frantic owner calm and got to work.  

After 3 hours of surgery, over 300 quills were removed (200 just from Spinner), and our dogs were out of the woods…literally and figuratively.  Both are home, on antibiotics, pain meds and resting comfortably.   Thank you, thank you Dr. Jennifer Edwards and team!! 

What a happy ending to what could have been a tragic story.  Dr. Edwards told me that they had ANOTHER “quilled dog” case that same day.  Spring has sprung in NH and the porcupines are out and about.  It is time to check those invisible fence collar batteries everyone.  It is also tick season, so be certain that your dogs are on tick and flee prevention, and heartworm prevention.  Lyme Disease is rampant in New Hampshire!

Looking for a new Fantastic Veterinarian for your pets?  Please check out Ponemah Veterinary Hospital – 603-673-5300.  In addition to sick patient and emergency care, Ponemah Vet offers Pet Dentistry/Surgery, Well care/Annual checkups, Pet Grooming and Boarding, Puppy/Kitten and Senior Pet Care, Parasite Prevention, an array of Diagnostic Services, and Microchip ID Services. 

The next thing our family will invest in is Dog Collar GPS technology.  On a positive, who knew that lost dogs, porcupines and Real Estate were all good bed-fellows?  During my 3-town search, I met over a dozen area residents, 4 Policemen from 3 different towns, 4 business owners and explored countless back roads, new neighborhoods and town forest areas.  Wow!  Thanks Spinner.

Happy Buy-Local Thursday/Friday!

Caroline

Photo Credit: Ponemah Veterinary Hospital - Used with Permission

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