Pigs fighting after being reunited

[LAPiggies]

Hi all,

Would love some advice - we have three lovely female Guinea pigs who have lived together problem free for a little under a year. Two (Mochi and Matcha) were from the same litter, and the third (Miso) was a rescue – she’s blind, but gets around fine. A couple weeks ago, Miso developed a URI and we of course isolated her for the course of her treatment.

We reintroduced her into the normal home today, and it went extremely poorly. She and Matcha started fighting (violently so), and cut Matcha’s lip. I scooped Matcha up and she (perhaps unsurprisingly) bit me VERY hard and deep on my finger. So I guess I have 2 questions:

1. Is this type of behavior normal when reintegrating an isolated pig? If so, what can we do? If not, what are our options? Mochi had an abscess and was isolated several months ago, and we didn’t see any issues when returning her to the squad.
2. Do I need to be worried about rabies? They’re exclusively indoor pigs.

Any advice would be very welcome. I feel terrible that I put Matcha in harm’s way and want to make sure I’m doing everything I can for them.

 

[Tigermoth]

Unless Matcha had been in contact with an animal infected with rabies then no, you don’t have to worry on that score.

As for the social things, I don’t know enough to comment but a helpful piece of the story that is missing is, did the reintroduction take place on neutral territory? Or did you just return her to their pen?

Hope it settles down. Have you separated again for now?

 

[LAPiggies]

Unless Matcha had been in contact with an animal infected with rabies then no, you don’t have to worry on that score.

As for the social things, I don’t know enough to comment but a helpful piece of the story that is missing is, did the reintroduction take place on neutral territory? Or did you just return her to their pen?

Hope it settles down. Have you separated again for now?

It was in their normal pen, but with all new liners/bedding - that’s what we did when we reintroduced Mochi, and when we first got Miso.

We did separate again. Mochi and Matcha are together and doing good as usual, and Miso is in a separate enclosure.

 

[Swissgreys]

I am not an expert, but it isn't clear why they were separated in the first place.
Unless a guinea pig is really ill they don't need to be separated while undergoing treatment.

But ideally the reintroduction should have been done on totally neutral territory with only a hay pile in there, to give everyone a chance to settle down.
Sadly now they have had a serious fight, the chances of them going back to living together happily are very small.


You might find the bonding guides useful.
Bonds In Trouble
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

 

[LAPiggies]

I am not an expert, but it isn't clear why they were separated in the first place.
Unless a guinea pig is really ill they don't need to be separated while undergoing treatment.

But ideally the reintroduction should have been done on totally neutral territory with only a hay pile in there, to give everyone a chance to settle down.
Sadly now they have had a serious fight, the chances of them going back to living together happily are very small.


You might find the bonding guides useful.
Bonds In Trouble
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

They were separated on the instruction of the vet who treated Miso

 

[Piggies&buns]

We don’t recommend separating them during an illness unless absolutely necessary for example if a poorly piggy starts to get bullied, or if there is a surgical wound site at risk from the other piggies. For a URI, the others would already have been exposed so separating her would not have been helpful. Plus medical separation has the ability to ruin a bond which is why we dont recommend it.

Also the reintroduction needed to take place in neutral territory, not by adding her back into their normal cage (any separation over a couple of days long needs to follow the proper rebonding process). Her reintroduction could be seen as a territory invasion.

The other two have decided she is an outsider and now sadly as a bad fight and injury has occurred then their bond has broken and they do need to stay separated permanently.
Make sure she is kept in a side by side cage so she can still interact with them through the bars