Bonded Sows Fighting after 5 years! Why?

[cjrini]

I have two five-year-old sows who have been bonded since they were old enough to come home. They've always gotten along without any issues. Just the occasional "in-season" nonsense. Recently, it seems the hierarchy has shifted. The dominant piggie, Lua is being attacked by the typically subdued and friendly piggie, Bucca. It just happened out of the blue one day.. I heard an awful screech and ran to check on them... Bucca had Lua cornered, teeth chattering ...she reared up and lunged at Lua. I couldn't believe it as it is so out of character. I tried to let them work it out since no blood was drawn, but there's been fighting off and on for days now. I'm considering using a separator.

Can a long time bonded pair just decide they no longer like each other? Do you think that Lua, who was always the dominant one, could be sick, so the balance of dominance changed? I would hate to have my senior piggies live out the rest of their lives apart.

I also have 3 other sows, all about a year old, who live in a separate space from my senior sow pair, and they've been abnormally grumpy with each other too.

Could they just all be having a brutal "season"?
Thanks in advance for advice!

 

[Lady Kelly]

I'm not sure whether this could be down to a strong season or not but if it's been going on longer than 2-3 days I would be edging towards the "not".

Personally I would have the pair vet checked by a cavy savvy vet to look at underlying health conditions, not necessarily in Lua either as ovarian cysts are very common in sows and can cause aggressive behaviour

 

[Chaz]

Do you think there could be something wrong with Bucca? If she's in pain, she could be grumpy or aggressive.
I know I talk about Daisy loads, but when she had mites, she was a right brute to me and to Hazel(Her sister)