OMG ! FIGHTING BOARS ..... WHAT A NIGHT

[yyoung]

In my infinite wisdom I thoguht that i would make a large C+C cage and put all 5 of my boars in together for company etc .....
Bliddy hell ...... I canot believe what happened....
The cage was brand new so no smells....alll stuff I put in was fresh and new so I thought hey lets go for it...got a couple of hours to spare to supervise them .... why not ?

Dear oh dear oh dear....I have never in my life seen anything so chaotic. I had Lenny and George in one cage and Hamish, Pickles and Bumble in another. Lenny and Geaorge are 3 years old, Hamish is 6 months old and Pickles and Bumble are around 8 weeks old. I would have put money on Lenny and George trying to dominate but you never know how wrong you can be. Hamish .... the beast ... set out for a full blown attack as soon as he clapped eyes on George...George who is normally so placid set out to attck him and the others all set out to join in (apart from Bumble who just weaved in and out of the whole sorry commotion). Eventually they settled down and went to sleep. I went for a well deserved glass of the red stuff. Came to go to bed and they were at it again. Lenny ...poor guy .... was cowering in the corner. Enough is enough so I removed Lenny and George and the poor dears had to spend the night in the hospital tuff crate as my OH (in his wisdom !) had cleaned and put the cages in the garages and it was 3am.

On checking the next day thoroughly for injuries George has a cut lip...Hamish has a cut nose and Lenny has 6 or so largish scabs on his back. Now I didn't think this was down to the fighting as he wasn't that involved so I reckon this was mites. Back to vets who gave me Xeno 450 for him and said the wounds were quite deep....

Have I missed these wounds and they've been there for days ? Were they caused with the fighting ? is it mites ? I just don't know....looks like mites as he had them when he was a baby ( I suspect came from P@H with them) and it looks exactly the same ... anyway treating as mites and keeping an eye on him but safe to say I've given up and put the old boys back in their own cage and left the 3 others in the C+C

 

[roninnorfolk]

Oh Bless It is horrible when they set too on each other!
At least you tried and unfortunately thats the only way to try!
I tried Herecles and Sage together last year as they had briefly met before with little fuss But Herecles just launched at Sage so that was quickly stopped!
Sending Lenny Healing Vibes :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:

 

[Lez]

i had problems with merlin and heath too. they lived together for about 5 days, after that i seperated cos merlin was attacking heath when i wasnt looking, and heath had a bite would that turned into an absess :o

 

[gus and jack]

I'm sorry but chucking them all in a big cage together with no gradual introductions is definately not the way to do it. You should have started with a really big room and lots of food and distractions and only for short periods at a time, say half an hour and then slowly build up if everythig was going well.

I hope all their wounds heal quickly. When two of my boys had a scrap one got a bit lip and it healed pretty quick without any problems. I'd keep an eye on Lennys wounds, deep ones can turn into an abcess really quickly and they can be a nightmare to get rid of. Hope they're all ok O0

 

[yyoung]

I'm not sure (and neither is the vet) as to whether they are fight wounds or mites..... attching a couple of pics ....any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Lenny didn't appear to be too involved in the fighting...it was more George and Hamish and they have their own albeit tiny marks.

I had actually tried them on floor time and with treats etc but clearly my lack of experience is showing ....but I'm here to learn although I'm not sure I would want to try this lot again. Maybe I didn't try for long enough with floor time and treats etc...

Lenny has about 6 of these wounds.... which I have to say look a little better today than yesterday.....

What do you think ?

 

[Lez]

personally id say it looks like hes been nipped

as that looks similar to the marks heath had. except heatsh turned into absesses

watch them very closely make sure they don get infected

 

[starla]

I would say fight marks

It's possible he may get mites due to the stress of being in with other boars, but I don't think they would occur so severely and so quickly after being put in with them. So definately fight marks! Like Lez said they could turn nasty so keep an eye on them.

I know you were only doing what you hoped was best but 5 boars together (in my opinion) is a bad idea. I would only say try 3 together to someone experienced. Unlike sows boars can't live harmoniously together in large groups.
At best you may be able to have the two boys on one side, a divider in the middle and the three others on the other side

I hope none of the boys have been upset too much as it can damage their current groupings. Good luck

 

[yyoung]

I think I have removed Lenny and George in time and the dynamics of their relationship 'appears' for now to remain unchanged.....

The other 3 seem to be the same as they were before so hopefully I've not caused too much damage .... apart from the physical ones which I can solve (hopefully)

Ther is a girl locally who has a whole shed full of boars and so I guess I was trying to emulate her set up...but maybe I didn't consider their individual personalities enough...normally I am pretty good at reading my pig and their body language etc etc but clearly failed miserably on this occasion

Will be keeping an eye on Lenny but now I feel worse knowing that I am the cause of his pain..... think I preferred to blames the mites ;D

 

[Clare]

i have boar problems too, devon attacked romeo and his ear is half off! i have kept it clean and its healing ok and they are not fighting anymore... my fault i put their run next to 6 girls!!

 

[starla]

I have heard of groups of boars but I think it's quite rare! They all have to have veeeeeeery laid back personalities ;D

I think sometimes we assume pigs are laid back because they are quieter etc and haven't bothered to dominate others, but in a large group they decide to show the powerful side of their personalities! I have also had this problem, with one sow!

You could treat Lenny's wounds with perhaps mild salt water, I'm sure I've heard of this with guinea wounds - anyone want to correct me?

 

[gus and jack]

Hard to say what they look like really. Whereabouts are they on his body? One of my pigs had severe mites when I took him in and he had scabs a little like those on his shoulders but if he's been scratching enough to give himself scabs like that he should have noticable hair loss and quite pink skin under his hair. His skin doesn't seem pink around the wound and he still seems to have hair there so I'd go with fighting wounds.
Sorry if I sounded mean earlier I didn't realise you'd already tried floor time, boars are such a pain. If you've got a big C&C I wouldn't have it any smaller than a 2x8 or 2x9 but now they've drawn blood it might not be a good idea to try again although the two of mine that actually drew blood spent 5 months on their own and are now back living together without any hassle. All depends on their personality.

 

[Endemoniada]

I'd agree that those injuries look like fight wounds from teeth...just like Clare I've got fighting boars at the moment (so I know what fight wounds look like unfortunately!) because I had their run too close to the girls in the garden. Boy am I regretting it now! Matty and Nelson have been happy cagemates for a year, since Nelson's old roommate died and we got Matty as a baby to keep him company. But since the grass incident 3 wheeks ago, they've been fighting every day, although they do seem a bit calmer now, but Nelson is still getting small wounds every day.

Has anyone experienced problems having 2 boars when the younger boar "comes of age" about age 1 year? I am wondering if this would have happened without the garden incident, as Matty is now trying to become alpha-pig and take over from Nelson? Anyone got any advice? I did bath them both after a wheek, which did seem to calm them down a bit (took away their scent for a while)!

 

[boureki]

I picked up a pair of fighting baors from a lady recently who wanted to rehome them, and one had open wounds like that, so I'm afraid they do look like bite marks. I would strongly recommend you to get some soothing Aloe Gel from Gorgeous Guineas asap to help and then as soon as it starts to heal, Lavender & Myrrh cream from her too. www.gorgeousguineas.com she has a newsletter too on wounds like this which you may find interesting http://community.icontact.com/p/gor...as/posts/gorgeous-guineas-a-pig-called-wanda2 I wasn't quite sure what I was dealing with either at the time and emailed Chrissie at Gorgeous Guineas who was a mine of information and does all she can to help.

As Lez said, keep an eye out for any infection around the wounds, if it starts to look pussey or inflamed/red around them, you may need some Baytril from the vet. I would also recommend a drop of Bach Rescue Remedy either in their water bottles or behind their ears for the next few days to help de-stress them all, and crushed Vit C tablets to help them recharge their healing powers and assist in mending the wounds. You can either sprinkle this on their food or syringe feed with a drop of water. Your vet may be able to sell you some individual Oxbow Vit C tablets specially formulated for small furries. You can use human ones, but I'm not sure which ones as you want to be careful of the dosage and any sugar content. We've kept our Vit C's up for our two for just over a week.

Boars can be temperamental creatures around each other, especially around the ladies, and I have to agree with the other posters who say it's very difficult to free range a load - it can be done, but it's pretty rare and has to be approached with lots of care, slowly and with tons of space and hidey holes!

 

[boureki]

Has anyone experienced problems having 2 boars when the younger boar "comes of age" about age 1 year? I am wondering if this would have happened without the garden incident, as Matty is now trying to become alpha-pig and take over from Nelson? Anyone got any advice? I did bath them both after a wheek, which did seem to calm them down a bit (took away their scent for a while)!

Yes, fall outs can occur when the youngest pig(s) reach adolescence, it's the equivalent of teenage boys getting aggressive rushes of hormones and a testosterone injection ;D It's not a given but most times with close attention and lots of space they can get over the worst (usually between about 4-11 months people say) bathing can sometimes help, but I find when I bathe my two who are perfectly OK most of the time a day or so later they are testing each other for dominance, but they usually get over it. The main key to bonded boys is tons of space and two of everything - hidey holes, toys, food bowls, water bottles etc. And no females in the vicinity always helps, although some pairings are just not bothered by close females at all, it probably depends on the pigs.

 

[Endemoniada]

Thanks for the advice! I am crossing my fingers that we are over the worst of it now....things have settled down a little bit in the last couple of days. The youngest is about 14mths old now, so this might have been more to do with the ladies in the run than his adolescence!

 

[Clare]

i cant put ladies or other cages boars near each orther , or they will turn on each other so i have them kept well apart... luckily i have a big garden, my boars are all coming up to 8 mths old now so have a while till they mellow out... testostorone tut!

 

[Niki]

I frequently used to put all my 5 intact boys in my run last summer, the run was approx 14ft x 11ft with lots of lovely green grass to munch on, all was well for at least 2 weeks but i supervised, the first time i left them, to answer the phone, i came back to tufts of hair all over.
Arthur had attacked Hamish (who's v.laid back), he had a cut lip, nose, graze to the side of his face & a nip on his back. I've never had my boys out together since & all my boys bar one were aged between 18 months & 2. All that room and still they had an altercation, thankfully Hamish healed fine.

 

[Clare]

ooohhh niki look at your avatr winking and waving awsome!! :smitten:

 

[cuddles]

Oh dear I hope they are alright.Bad piggies!