Increase in aggression in sow?

[danuutka]

Over the past couple of weeks, Nelli has become increasingly aggressive with Lulu. Nelli will chase Lulu, rumble at her, but what concerns me most is that she will lunge across the cage just to bite Lulu - and she doesn't bit once, she lunges and nips her 5-10 times, and poor Lulu doesn't know what is going on (Lulu is blind). She had acted like this previously, and we put it down to heat/hormones/cystic ovaries, however in early May Nelli had a hysterectomy - she had her ovaries and womb taken out, so that no longer seems like a viable option.

About a week ago we found a lump on Nellis left shoulder (I posted about this previously on the forum), and we are booked in with an amazing cavy specialist on Wednesday. Could this in any way be linked to her behaviour?

What are other reasons why suddenly a sow can become much more aggressive? Could she be in pain?

Other than her aggression, she's eating, pooing and peeing completely fine.

My big concern is that Lulu is blind, so she just gets attacked by Nelli out of nowhere and this is quite distressing for her. Lulu also has some quite severe eye tenderness, and sometimes Nelli's attacks will trigger Lulu to have a fit. It's heartbreaking.

 

[Wiebke]

Over the past couple of weeks, Nelli has become increasingly aggressive with Lulu. Nelli will chase Lulu, rumble at her, but what concerns me most is that she will lunge across the cage just to bite Lulu - and she doesn't bit once, she lunges and nips her 5-10 times, and poor Lulu doesn't know what is going on (Lulu is blind). She had acted like this previously, and we put it down to heat/hormones/cystic ovaries, however in early May Nelli had a hysterectomy - she had her ovaries and womb taken out, so that no longer seems like a viable option.

About a week ago we found a lump on Nellis left shoulder (I posted about this previously on the forum), and we are booked in with an amazing cavy specialist on Wednesday. Could this in any way be linked to her behaviour?

What are other reasons why suddenly a sow can become much more aggressive? Could she be in pain?

Other than her aggression, she's eating, pooing and peeing completely fine.

My big concern is that Lulu is blind, so she just gets attacked by Nelli out of nowhere and this is quite distressing for her. Lulu also has some quite severe eye tenderness, and sometimes Nelli's attacks will trigger Lulu to have a fit. It's heartbreaking.

Hi!

The lump is not connected to her behaviour but please Have Nelli also checked for ovarian cysts.
They are rather common in adult sows; the hormonal ones that cause the behavioural changes (often without any other classic symptoms) are more typical for sows between 2-4 years while non-hormonal symptom-free ones become more common and larger the older sows get and are the prevalent ones from age 4 onwards.
Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)

 

[danuutka]

Hi!

The lump is not connected to her behaviour but please Have Nelli also checked for ovarian cysts.
They are rather common in adult sows; the hormonal ones that cause the behavioural changes (often without any other classic symptoms) are more typical for sows between 2-4 years while non-hormonal symptom-free ones become more common and larger the older sows get and are the prevalent ones from age 4 onwards.
Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)

Hi! Nelli has a full hysterectomy (ovaries and womb removed) in early May, so this shouldn’t be an issue.