Kid is a troublesome teenager...

[skrikopanik]

I've showed you pictures of Kid showing Bo her teeth and I've seen it happening several times after that too.. When I changed their fleece yesterday I saw a few drops of blood on the inco pads, not like last time when the blood was diluted in a puddle of wee, but just on it's own.

There MUST have been a fight! I have examined all closely (much to their dismay...), especially mouth/nose/butt and not found any scabs or sores. It's harder to check Kid, of course because of her fluffy, thick fur, but the three smooth definitely don't have any bites.

Noone appears bullied or withdrawn and I've only found that little blood (isn't fleece a godsent? I know that I will see EVERYTHING, because the inco pads under are bright white). I'm just asking because of that "separate at the first sight of blood"-advice.

Right now I have a suspect, my ASBO teenege newcomer, but I'm not sure... And it's not like she could have bitten herself anyway. I guess one of the other, possibly Bo, just got fed up with the bratty kid showing them her teeth and trying to boss them around.

Are occational spats ok, as long as all pigs seem ok?

 

[Lisajazz]

well despite the blood it sounds okay. If they are fighting you will witness it at some point i'm sure.

Kid sounds like a strong character.

I had 2 girls here at the weekend that went to Suzy in the end, one of them was being bullied and she was very withdrawn. Seriously it was clear how unhappy she was poor love.

If all yours are in fine health and no one seems to be suffering I say carry on until something shows you otherwise?

 

[flintstones]

Ironically separating at the first sign of blood isn't all the case. I have read were people have a group of sows that small signs of blood may appear when they are establishing the pecking order. I think with boars its more serious as it leads to bigger trouble. I would say you know your pigs and aslong as everyone is happy I would keep an eye on the situation but leave things be at the moment.

 

[skrikopanik]

Thanks for the reassurance... I just needed to hear I can keep them together without risk of one of them getting killed...

Bother! Play nice, bratty pig! I might give Kid a bath and try to give them more floor time together. They already get a wide variety of toys and food for stimulation so I don't know if I can do much more in that department (I rearrange the furniture in the cage morning and night).

Hopefully it's just her teenage months... Oh goodness, how long do they stay teenagers for?!?

 

[Wiebke]

Very occasionally, sows do seem to bleed a little when in season. As you haven't been able to find any marks, might that have been the reason?

WE are sometimes so fixed on one aspect we are worrying about that we might overlook other unrelated causes.

 

[charlay]

yes that sounds very conserning but just little bits of blood might just mean that they just got to ruff and maybe you might need to seperate they for a little bit and then put them back together and they might do better!!!1