Catastrophic bonding fail :(

PigglePuggle

PigglePuggle

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So all the piggies were being nice and I decided to go ahead and introduce baby Tallulah skinny to the herd.
Total disaster nightmare :(
Tallulah seemed happy, trotting round the playpen, eating some hay, then she went up to Piggle and started teeth chattering and yawning at her. Piggle teeth chattered a bit back and wandered away. So far so normal. Puggle went over, all friendly... Tallulah lunged and took a big chunk of fur! Not so good... then it all kicked off.

Tallulah charged the length of the playpen at lightening speed and ripped a chunk of fur out of boss pig Clover! Clover wasn't best pleased and fluffed up her fur and teeth chattered but she didnt fight back because this is a tiny baby pig... she walked away... but then Tallulah didnt stop, chasing Clover, leaping on her back, full on biting her... Clover threw her off but Tallulah came back, biting and ripping fur :(

Whole failed bonding episode lasted about 15 minutes max then it was off to the emergency vet. Tallulah has 3 superficial bite wounds that bled a lot. We thought she was badly hurt but I dont think most of the blood was hers. Clover has a lot of missing fur and some fairly deep bites, plus her disabled leg got hurt in the fight.
Baytril and loxicom all round. Lots of wounds to bathe with saline. Follow up appointment Thursday. Vet form actually says "emergency consultation for trauma".
Me and piggy daddy arguing because he's all like "poor little Tallulah" but I'm really sorry for Clover, she's so sad and can't take her weight on her poor leg and the bites look more like a cat or dog got her than a psycho baby skinny pig less than half her weight!
What the hell happened there? What do we do now?
 
PigglePuggle said:
So all the piggies were being nice and I decided to go ahead and introduce baby Tallulah skinny to the herd.
Total disaster nightmare :(
Tallulah seemed happy, trotting round the playpen, eating some hay, then she went up to Piggle and started teeth chattering and yawning at her. Piggle teeth chattered a bit back and wandered away. So far so normal. Puggle went over, all friendly... Tallulah lunged and took a big chunk of fur! Not so good... then it all kicked off.

Tallulah charged the length of the playpen at lightening speed and ripped a chunk of fur out of boss pig Clover! Clover wasn't best pleased and fluffed up her fur and teeth chattered but she didnt fight back because this is a tiny baby pig... she walked away... but then Tallulah didnt stop, chasing Clover, leaping on her back, full on biting her... Clover threw her off but Tallulah came back, biting and ripping fur :(

Whole failed bonding episode lasted about 15 minutes max then it was off to the emergency vet. Tallulah has 3 superficial bite wounds that bled a lot. We thought she was badly hurt but I dont think most of the blood was hers. Clover has a lot of missing fur and some fairly deep bites, plus her disabled leg got hurt in the fight.
Baytril and loxicom all round. Lots of wounds to bathe with saline. Follow up appointment Thursday. Vet form actually says "emergency consultation for trauma".
Me and piggy daddy arguing because he's all like "poor little Tallulah" but I'm really sorry for Clover, she's so sad and can't take her weight on her poor leg and the bites look more like a cat or dog got her than a psycho baby skinny pig less than half her weight!
What the hell happened there? What do we do now?
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HUGS!

It is totally shocking for us when things blow up like that seemingly out of nowhere after just one wrong exchange of signals when you think that acceptance has gone well.

Looks like Tallulah totally overreacted out of fear. Just keep her as a next door piggy for a goodly while and do not try to bond her with your others again. Clover is likely to be extremely wary/fear-aggressive with any new piggies as well after such a traumatising experience.

I am very sorry that it has all gone very haywire for you. It can shake you to the core (as it does all piggies involved). Give them time to degest it and to recover from it.
 
Aw, I’m so sorry for you all, that was not what anyone was expecting. Hope all your girls are alright. Poor Clover, I hope her leg is ok soon. Tallulah has really let rip there, wonder if she has had a bad experience previously?
 
Thanks! I feel so bad for putting my piggies through this, but as next door neighbours all the signs were so positive, and I thought a lonely baby pig would integrate quite well...
Really not sure how to proceed now, Clover is very upset but her friends are being very kind to her. Tallulah can stay on her own for now but I will need to think about what we do for her next...
 
Hay, don’t blame yourself, these things happen, piggies are very strange sometimes. Maybe it was just all too much for her? I would have thought that this bonding would have gone really well too. She’ll be fine for a while on her own for now. Main task now is getting everyone settled down and wounds healed. So sorry x
 
Clover is feeling a bit better after her loxicom and was sitting eating hay with her best mate Blod when I just checked on them.
One of Tallulah's bite wounds was definitely Blod sneaking in to give a crafty nip to defend her idol Clover and I don't blame her really. Poor Clover got the crap beaten out of her. So the main herd dynamics havent been affected and there is extra deep hay and lots of fleece to cushion Clover's leg.
Its just the Tallulah issue really... not sure I'd dare try bond her again except with a boar, she seemed quite taken with Theo for about 30 seconds before she freaked out at all the ladies.
I could just contact her previous owner and say, sorry it didnt work out- the lady was nice and had lots of well loved animals. Tallulah could go back to live with her mum and aunty. But piggy daddy is completely outraged at the very thought of that.
Or she could go boar dating, if there are any neutered boars up to the job! But then Theo and piggy daddy wouldnt want another boar in the house. She could get a husboar then go live with my daughter though, my daughter just moved to a big house quite close by and I know she has a utility room just off the kitchen that looks like it needs filling with pets...
Lots to think about anyway!
 
Oh heck you had a very bad experiance and course all piggies.
Wish I could help but I've not bonded my piggies yet.
2 lots 2 girls and i find this very intresting.
Hope all wounds mend and you get some lovin off piggies.
 
One thing I have to say though is, my vets are brilliant. I didnt say it was an emergency, I just said there were bite wounds from a fight but no stitches needed, and I'm sure it would have waited until tomorrow with some saline to bathe the wounds, or a phone chat with the vet to ok the loxicom, but the receptionist still triaged it as an emergency and got us an appointment within the hour. On a saturday. At no extra cost. That's amazing really!
 
Sorry to hear this 😣. Maybe you will be able to bond another pig with the skinny, a neutered boar ? Hope you work things out
 
Poor Clover, she daren't eat her dinner, she normally monopolises 3 food dishes then invites the others to join her... she's hiding away. And none of the others wanted to touch Clover's food bowls without being invited (except Blod who was going for a 6th slice of pepper, Blod and Clover have a special understanding). I took the untouched food bowls out and hand fed Clover her veggies then scattered the rest in the hay... poor boss pig got a bad scare today :(
 
Oh what a shock you've had @PigglePuggle. Hope Boss Clover is OK and that everything settles down over the next few days. Who'd have thought Tallulah would have reacted like that after all the positive signs everypig was giving off? If Theo and Piggy Daddy don't want another boar would you want to try another sow? Take her sow dating?
 
Oh no. How awful for all your piggies. Tallulah sounds like a real handful. Maybe meeting all those piggies at once just scared her and she acted out of fear. Hope you can find a way forward.
Maybe one of the rescues would try bonding her with a different sow.
 
Would waiting until shes bigger help? Feel less threatened? Just thinking, she cant even make herself look any bigger either.

No doubt I'm wrong lol, but ideas are ideas
 
Give them lots of love and cuddles to settle them down. It's not Tallulah's fault she went off on one. She obviously wanted to meet your herd but then when she did, decided that she didn't.
 
Yes I dont think I'd realised quite how small a bald 600g piggy is next to a 1200g furry one with her fur fluffed up... piggy daddy says he wonders if Tallulah maybe associates big and furry with cats, her previous owner had house cats including a part wildcat hybrid!
 
PigglePuggle said:
Yes I dont think I'd realised quite how small a bald 600g piggy is next to a 1200g furry one with her fur fluffed up... piggy daddy says he wonders if Tallulah maybe associates big and furry with cats, her previous owner had house cats including a part wildcat hybrid!
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Quite possibly. To Tallulah anything bigger with lots of fur including big Clover pig may well be threatening. If she was traumatised by cats in her previous home she may think that she is going to be the same in your house. She doesn't know that this won't happen. To her she was probably acting on instinct from what she has known before and fighting for her life. She will need careful introductions to a new sow if you do decide that this is the best way to go. Maybe she will feel more secure living alone as a neighbour to the others in her own little c&c?
 
Just checked them both over properly and did the baytril and loxicom. Tallulah loves baytril, the little weirdo! All her wounds have scabbed over very clean and neat. Clover looks a bit worse today as her ear has turned purple and swollen up a bit, there's no broken skin but its horribly bruised and she looks like she's been playing rugby. She let me feel her leg and her disabled knee joint is quite swollen but nothing feels to have broken. I think I had a better feel of it than the vet did because piggy daddy was feeding her baby leaf lettuce at the front end while I examined the back!
They both enjoyed cuddles and bonus salad rewards for being good about the medicine :)
 
I'm thinking giving them a bit of pro-C in a syringe at the opposite end of the day to when they get their meds might be good for them?
 
God I'm so sorry @PigglePuggle, so shocked to read this! You saw such positive signs from them all, you really couldn't have predicted that!
Glad both the piggies are ok today, poor Clover bless her, what a shock for her!
Talullah's a strange one liking Baytril, it's blooming horrible! Glad she's ok too, what a strange reaction but I suppose you've got to 'protect' yourself when you're teeny and no hair as back up.

Hope you're ok, sorry again it didn't go as planned xx
 
Sorry to hear about this.
I too am afraid bonding won’t work out and will end up with three separate cages if I added another piggy from my current Finn and Lara.
 
PigglePuggle said:
I'm thinking giving them a bit of pro-C in a syringe at the opposite end of the day to when they get their meds might be good for them?
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I give my lot Pro-C when they are on antibiotics and also I put a pinch on forage which they have as an additional breakfast every other morning when its very cold outside. It certainly won't do them any harm.
 
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