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Aggression Do my piggies need to be separated? Help please!

Sunnyandwillow

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Sorry for the long post in advance. I recently rescued 2 sows who are at least 1 year old each. I bought them as a "bonded pair" (they had already been together for over a year). After an adjustment period of a few weeks I noticed a lot of fairly intense dominance behavior between them happening back and forth (I thought this was normal and likely just because of the recent changes in their lives). A couple weeks after buying I switched them into a large new pen with 2 hideys and food/water sources. The fighting between them lessened somewhat but did not stop for long even during floor time I still noticed the dominant girl rumbling, teeth chattering, and chasing away from food at times. Four days ago I noticed the submissive girl had lost some weight and was acting much more skittish than her previous self, the next two days she became less and less interested in leaving her hidey for anything including food. At first I was concerned about sickness, but she had a ravenous appetite when hand fed from her hut and I noticed the dominant pig rumbling at her anytime she noticed her leaving her hut. This all lead up to me placing a divider in the middle of their cage to separate them and see if it helped. Since separating them a couple days ago the submissive piggy has perked up somewhat and has been eating much more, although she is still a bit shy. The dominant piggie has been anxious though, chewing on the bars and standing on them. I'm wondering if at any point I try to re introduce them, or if I need to get new piggy buddies for them, or if they are fine now as is. The submissive piggy has shown interest in the other only twice since they have been separated and when she sniffed at the divider the dominant piggy started rumbling at her right away.
 

bpatters

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Just as an FYI, if you'll break your posts up into paragraphs with a double space between them, more people will read them. Some folks are turned off by a "wall of text" and will just skip those posts.

Is there any chance that the dominant one is older than a year? It sounds like the behavior of a sow with an ovarian cyst, but those don't usually occur until around three or later.

I'd want an ultrasound done to check for cysts.
 

Sunnyandwillow

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Thanks! There is a good chance. I'm their third home �� and I only know their last home had them for 1 year. So she very well could be older, I have a vet appointment for June 1 with them both, is that soon enough or is it urgent if it is a cyst?
 

bpatters

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It's not urgent except for the bullying, or unless the cyst is so large that it might rupture. But you'd probably be able to see her sides bulging if that's the case.
 
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