The porcupine is a nocturnal rodent covered with sharp quills, widespread throughout Italy. When confronted by danger, it raises its spines, shakes its tail, and charges either backward or sideways toward attackers. Once contact occurs, the quills detach and can penetrate into muscles or body cavities because of the downward-facing serrated cuticle near their base, which acts like a harpoon. In rare cases, these quills have been found inside the heart of dogs, producing serious clinical symptoms. This paper reports a case involving a single Hystrix cristata (HC) quill that migrated into a dog’s heart and explains how several imaging techniques were used for its identification and surgical removal. A 4-year-old, 25-kg, mixed-breed female dog was referred with recurrent episodes of fever. Echocardiography revealed a bright, linear foreign body crossing the interventricular septum from the cardiac base to the apex. Computed tomography and transesophageal echocardiography confirmed a quill-like object, while esophageal endoscopy ruled out structural or mucosal abnormalities. Through a median sternotomy and ultrasound-guided localization, the quill was successfully extracted. The dog recovered uneventfully without notable cardiac damage from the embedded quill. To the authors’ awareness, this represents the first documented removal of an intracardiac Hystrix cristata quill identified via ultrasound and CT imaging.
