Odd behaviour

[Tiamolly123]

Tia & Chester both had bloat about 10 days ago, we thought we were going to lose Chester, with lots of love & fibreplex they both pulled through.
since then they have been stuck together. They sleep together, Tia won’t normally allow that. It’s so odd, is it because they were both ill together, or Chester can sense, that Tia is old, l’ve never seen this

 

[Wiebke]

Tia & Chester both had bloat about 10 days ago, we thought we were going to lose Chester, with lots of love & fibreplex they both pulled through.
since then they have been stuck together. They sleep together, Tia won’t normally allow that. It’s so odd, is it because they were both ill together, or Chester can sense, that Tia is old, l’ve never seen this

Hi

When piggies suddenly start sleeping close to a companion or hang around them all the time, then they are generally giving moral support to a very ill/frail/dying piggy in my own experience. It's a bit of an 'I don't want you to leave me' thing.

PS: I have moved your thread out of Forum Technical Assistance where you had accidentally posted it.

 

[BabyBears]

That’s interesting, what sex are Tia and Chester? In my experience, when there is a gravely ill piggy, the others want to distance themselves - but that’s just my experience with sows.

More importantly, did you find the cause for the bloat?

 

[Wiebke]

That’s interesting, what sex are Tia and Chester? In my experience, when there is a gravely ill piggy, the others want to distance themselves - but that’s just my experience with sows.

More importantly, did you find the cause for the bloat?

It very much depends on whether a very ill/dying piggy removes themselves from a group (which in a cage is not always easy to spot if that refuge is a cosy and not a cage corner they face into) if they suddenly feel very sick in order to not spread a potentially infectious problem around the group or if they just feel under the weather and frail.
In the first case, companions will usually keep at a distance. With a dying companion, they may come up at some point to check on the ill one, take their leave and then ignore them; this can happen well before the actual death. If they continue to ignore the body of their companion, it usually means that they have already said their goodbyes.

If the ill/dying piggy is a leader, then sickness can sometimes trigger dominance behaviours from a surprised and insecure second in command under pressure of stepping into the leadership gap. If the second in command is confident in themselves and very fond of the leader, then their is no dominance behaviour; the same as when an under-piggy is ill/dying. But it is not usually the kind of bullying that it is often perceived as by human owners unless the pair/group is dysfunctional in the first place.

In the second case, especially if the ill/dying piggy craves company/comfort or if the companion is very dependent on their mate, they will stay closely together. Piggies can be very caring.


PS: Has your vet checked whether the bloating has an underlying cause? Bloating can be both primary as an upset of the microbiome in the gut or it can be secondary, caused by something pressing on the gut or by pain radiating into the gut from the lower spine or bladder/reproductive tract. It's all very tightly packed around each other in there. Not eating enough for longer can also cause bloating.