In a retrospective study of 42 dogs treated at a Belgian university hospital, 38 survived, an observed survival rate of 90.5%. The paper, published in the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association (JAAHA), describes injuries from wild boar attacks and how those dogs fared. It is a small, selected hospital cohort. The figure describes what happened to these dogs. It is not a guarantee or a prognosis for any individual dog.
What the study did
Claire Surleraux, Robin Fougnies, Stéphanie Noël, Priscilla Burnotte and Kris Gommeren reviewed records from the University Veterinary Clinic for Companion Animals in Liège, Belgium. They covered dogs presented from December 2013 through January 2024. Only cases with complete admission records, injury descriptions, clinical examination information and outcomes were included, which left 42 dogs. The study appeared in JAAHA, volume 61, issue 6, pages 161–166 (DOI 10.5326/JAAHA-MS-7502), under the title “A Retrospective Study on Boar-Induced Trauma in 42 Dogs.”
The authors call these cases boar attack–associated trauma (BAAT). They classified injuries as blunt, penetrating or combined, and recorded location and number of injuries. They also used the Animal Trauma Triage (ATT) score to characterize severity, and they recorded outcome. The study did not test a treatment, protective gear or any product.
Overall survival
Of the 42 dogs, 38 (90.5%) survived. Four did not: two were euthanized and two died naturally. Because the dogs reached a specialist hospital and had complete records, this group probably does not represent every dog attacked by a boar. Dogs that died at the scene or were never taken to a clinic would not appear in it.
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Blunt, penetrating and combined injuries
Blunt injuries occurred in 36 of 42 dogs, penetrating injuries in 13 and combined injuries in 7. These categories overlap, because a combined case counts in both the blunt and the penetrating totals. The counts therefore add up to more than 42.
| Injury category | Survivors | Observed survival | Mean ATT score (SD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penetrating only | 6/6 | 100% | 4.3 (1.2) for penetrating trauma |
| Blunt only | 26/29 | 89.7% | 2.5 (1.3) for blunt trauma |
| Combined | 6/7 | 85.7% | 5.0 (1.0) |
The denominators are very small. One death more or fewer would move these percentages a lot, so they should not be read as proof that one injury type is safer than another. The authors report too few observations to reach statistical significance when assessing how injury characteristics influenced survival.
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Severity: what the ATT scores show
Higher ATT scores mean more severe injury. Penetrating and combined trauma averaged higher scores than blunt trauma, as the table shows. Dogs with multiple injuries averaged 4.2 (SD 1.4), against 2.5 (SD 1.4) for dogs with a single injury. These scores describe how severe the injuries looked at presentation. They do not show that a higher score caused death. Even the combined group, with the highest mean score, had 6 of 7 dogs survive.
Thoracic injuries and the four deaths
All four dogs that died had thoracic injuries. That is worth noting, but it is an observation in four animals. It is not a validated risk rule, and it does not say how likely a dog with a chest injury is to die. The study gives no basis for estimating that. The paper also describes hospital assessment and procedures, including thoracic and abdominal surgery in some dogs. These describe the care received. They are not a guide to home treatment.
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How to use these findings
- Appropriate use: the study describes injury patterns after boar attacks and shows that many dogs treated at a university hospital in this cohort survived.
- Not supported: causal claims about injury type, population-wide survival rates, or predictions for an individual dog.
- Design limits: single teaching hospital, retrospective records, small sample, and inclusion only of cases with sufficiently complete records.
A dog attacked by a boar should be examined by a veterinarian promptly, because injuries, especially to the chest and abdomen, may not be obvious from the outside. That advice is general, not a finding of this study.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Source
Surleraux C, Fougnies R, Noël S, Burnotte P, Gommeren K. A Retrospective Study on Boar-Induced Trauma in 42 Dogs. J Am Anim Hosp Assoc. 2025;61(6):161–166. DOI: 10.5326/JAAHA-MS-7502.
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