Lead piggy has a terminal diagnosis, how will this affect the hierachy?

[Emx93]

Nugget has today been diagnosed with a bladder tumour she's the lead piggy of 5 but I have noticed a shift in dynamic recently as she's been quieter and painful and I suspect second in command marshmallow may be slowly taking over. My question is when the time comes will the herd be OK? I'm dreading any potential fighting over dominance as she deteriotes she has ruled with iron paw for 3 years and accepted all new companions presented to her and welcomed them into her group my first ever pet (along with fluffy already at rainbow bridge) and such a big personality, I'm still in a bit of shock as we were suspecting bladder stones, sorry for the rambling

 

[eileen]

I'm so sorry for your devasting news.in my experience usually the 2nd in command slowly takes over,and subtlely as the top pig gets to poorly tired to keep up there position.i would not think the dominace would be too fierce ,but maybe more pronnounced dominance behaviour throughout the herd for the two weeks after any takeover.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi!

If you have got a competent second in command, then the transition will go pretty smoothly as the deputy is gradually stepping in and taking over although you are are likely to see some mild to medium dominance behaviour travelling down the hierarchy as the group re-establishes itself after the loss. In the vast majority of cases, the hand-over goes without too much of a hitch and leadership changes paws peacefully.

I have however had one group of five fall totally apart over competing leadership claims with neither party willing to step down once the top lady retired. I ended up with two pairs and a temporary single that none of the others wanted back on their doorstep. If there are major unlying rifts in the group, then they will usually come to the fore at this time.

Unfortunately, all you can do is to go with the flow and if necessary think out of the box. It all comes down to the personality combination and the individual ambitions of the other sows involved. That is not something you can predict or prevent; making lots of plans will also not help as your plans won't survive for very long in my own experience. I would however not lose any sleep over the possibility of things going haywire. Sows are generally wired to keep a group going for their own benefit and long term survival.

 

[Emx93]

Thankyou so much for the reassurance I suppose the advantage of having a group is if there is a massive stand off we could hopefully at least form two pairs flower and caramel the bottom two I can't see challanging but it wouldn't surprise me if mal staged a takeover thankyou after the initial shock of nugget my first thought was oh no but she's boss piggy! Though looking back I have noticed marshmallow slowly taking over in recent weeks