Aggressive Female

[Becky3]

Hello,

I have been an avid reader of the Guinea Pig Forum, but this is only my second or third post... I'm hoping someone can help us with our guinea girl who is displaying aggressive behaviour.

We have had many guinea pigs over the years, with all our recent ones being rescues, so we do consider ourselves fairly experienced. However, we can't make head or tail of one of our sows' (Dotty) recent behaviour.

She arrived as a little rescue piglet about 4 years ago, was introduced to a male and female and settled in well. Sadly, the female died and we introduced two new females - again no problem, in fact Dotty and one of the girls hit it off straight away. Unfortunately one year later, the boar passed away and Dotty took over as the "head girl" - again no problem.

About a year later, we introduced all three girls to a new boar (he was very young and little at the time, only about 4-5 months old) - everyone accepted each other, apart from Dotty who couldn't stand the boar and even attacked him, so we separated them and Dotty continued to live with her 2 girls and the boar met another lovely single lady.

We noticed that Dotty increasingly displayed dominant behaviour, but this was within the normal parameters, although towards the last couple of months, one of the girls seemed a little upset every now and then.

Sadly we have been hit hard this year and lost both of Dotty's girls in very quick succession, only 4 weeks apart from each other. Dotty has been devastated on both occasions, but especially after the second girl passed away. She seemed (and still does seem) very sad and needy - she always wants to spend a lot of time with me and my fiance, whereas in the past she was always eager to get back into her cage.

We didn't want to wait long and introduced her to two rescue sows (possibly sisters), who are slimmer, slightly smaller and a lot more timid than her. They accepted her as the "head girl" straight away, but she soon started to snap and chase them for no reason, with her behaviour being aggressive. During introduction it became so bad that the two new girls were too scared to come out of their houses and Dotty would have a go at them as soon as they would move. Whenever we didn't keep an eye on them, one of the new girls would scream, so we decided to separate them and take things more slowly.

Since then, we've just been baffled. Dotty appears more and more needy and craving social interaction; she spends a lot of time time next to the other girls (we have put a divider into the C&C cage, so that they can still sniffle each other). During cuddle time, she and the girls are mostly fine and she seemingly enjoys their company - until they move too much or they are left in neutral territory on their own (we of course still supervise) and she starts to chatter her teeth aggressively and lunges at them. Yesterday, after a fairly successful cuddle session, we decided to put the more timid sister into the cage with her - to no avail, Dotty chattered her teeth straight away, showed her teeth (yawning) and attacked her. All attacks were completely unprovoked; the girls accept her as the strongest and try to stay out of her way.

I would be grateful for your thoughts on this... is there anything that we can try or is this a lost case? What could be the cause of such aggressive behaviour? Hormones, just her character - or possibly mourning?

Thanks in advance!
Becky

 

[Wiebke]

As you have mentioned, I would certainly have her checked for ovarian cysts, not large ones (that usually don't cause any symptoms), but smaller growing ones that are much more likely the cause of your trouble. A hormone therapy may bring relief. Two courses of it often the do the trick. She may always remain a difficult to bond girl, especially as she is no longer a youngster.

One of my girls, Tegyd, was displaying similar symptoms at times and it was very touch and go considering that she is living in a cataract group and that the blindest of the piggies was not able to get out of the way quickly of her occasional lunges. Thankfully, there was never any damage.

The screaming is in fact submission and not so much pain, but Dotty's behaviour is definitely not acceptable for any companions! She will have to stay next door for interaction through bars for the time being.

Could you please add your country, state or (for the UK) your county or city, so we can give you always tailored recommendations at all times. Click on your name on the top bar, then go to personal details and scroll down to location. We have got a piggy savvy locator on the top bar for our UK members.

 

[Becky3]

Thank you, Wiebke, that's really really helpful.

We've had so many guinea pigs in the past and this is the first time we've ever dealt with a girl with such a consistent form of aggressive behaviour.

I was thinking of ovarian cysts too and it's good you mentioned this. She has not been showing any signs of them so far - such as hair loss or enlarged nipples - and we've found nothing unusual when checking her tummy either. It's interesting that you said that smaller ones could be the cause of this though. I think we'll definitely get her checked out - we just really don't want her to live alone for the rest of her life, especially as she could easily be around for another 2 years!

What I forgot to mention is that she has been chronically suffering from an irritable bladder - for possibly the last 1-2 years. She was on several different medications, including Septrin, Rimadyl and Nutraquin Plus at any one time, but we switched her to Shi Lin Tong about 6 months ago, which seems to have helped a lot. I'm not sure if this is relevant here, but thought I'd mention it!

Profile is now also updated :-)

 

[Wiebke]

All the best. Ovarian cysts do not necessarily come with any other symptoms. My Tegys didn't show any signs at all, either, apart from her bouts of aggressive behaviour. She will likely always be a difficult piggy to match up but hopefully the hormone therapy will take the sting out of the tail.