Post Ovarian Cyst Spay fighting

[adavies2]

Hello All,

My piggy Honey had an Ovarian Cyst Spay yesterday (07/11/2025) and so far she is having an incredible recovery, honestly shes acting like nothing happened.
Eating non-stop, lots of healthy poos, very happy overall. Apart from the refusal to take her medication, takes a long time to get it done.

She had the first night on her own in a recovery pop up run, and she saw one of her sisters (Fig) for hay time and they were fine.
Today, she spent time on her own in the pen as Fig kept nibbling Honeys belly, and she'll be spend another night in the recovery pen tonight.

I did, however, have Honey and Fig on the sofa for more hay time together. After a few minutes of calm, Fig grooming honeys side, they broke out into teeth chattering, puffed up coats, lunging and chasing. Note, Honey was and hopefully still is the leader of the trio.

Immediately separated as I dont want honeys surgical site to be bitten or worse.

I am very worried about returning Honey into the main cage. The plan was to return her tomorrow morning with her sisters, but if a fight breaks out, I'm concerned for Honeys safety.

Is this normal? Honey is 100grams lighter since immediately after her surgery as the cyst was large. Very obvious when looking as she isn't pear shaped anymore. The only dominance Fig would show before, is peeing at Honey when she would try mounting her.

Juniper (the younger pig) definitely tries her luck and I think she may try and be top pig, as a post surgery hay time lead to a little nipping (Juniper got told off by Honey).

Any reassurance and/or advice for reintroducing Honey to the main cage would be greatly appreciated. Again, Honey is doing remarkably well, I just dont want to have broken bonds as a result of separation for Honeys healing.
Id say they have only been apart for 1 night and 1 day, with some hay time together occasionally.

Picture of Honey and Fig moments before fighting.

Thanks again

 

[thewheakybeans]

I’m sorry you’ve experienced some tension between Honey and Fig. I can’t advise as never had this happen in my herd of sows before but hopefully someone will write to you soon.
I just want to say your girls are gorgeous, love their colours, and wishing Honey a speedy recovery from her op.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry to hear this.

Unfortunately a medical separation can cause issues and it is one of the most common reasons for adult piggies to fall out.

You must go about reintroduction the right way - you cannot just put her back in the main cage.
You need to put all of them in a neutral territory bonding pen (somewhere none of them are as their own space) to go back to basics to allow them to hopefully reintegrate. Usually you get an answer about the viability of their bond quite quickly when in neutral - it either goes well or it doesn’t. Do not add any hides in the neutral territory pen, just have hay and water.
If all goes well in neutral, then clean out the main cage and after several hours (all day if necessary) in neutral territory move them back to the main cage. Don’t use any single exit hides in the main cage, but you can add in two exit hides at this point if all remains well.
If it doesn’t go well in neutral, then it may be that the hierarchy has changed and she might not be accepted back.

Fig, by peeing at Honey, wasn’t showing dominance. Peeing at another piggy is telling them to go away, it’s not dominance it’s self defence.

I have added three guides below. The first two detail medication separations, bond issues post op care including companionship. The third explains the bonding/rebonding neutral territory process.

Fingers crossed for them

Bonds In Trouble
Tips For Post-operative Care
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated Bonding Dynamics and Behaviours

 

[adavies2]

I’m sorry to hear this.

Unfortunately a medical separation can cause issues and it is one of the most common reasons for adult piggies to fall out.

You must go about reintroduction the right way - you cannot just put her back in the main cage.
You need to put all of them in a neutral territory bonding pen (somewhere none of them are as their own space) to go back to basics to allow them to hopefully reintegrate. Usually you get an answer about the viability of their bond quite quickly when in neutral - it either goes well or it doesn’t. Do not add any hides in the neutral territory pen, just have hay and water.
If all goes well in neutral, then clean out the main cage and after several hours (all day if necessary) in neutral territory move them back to the main cage. Don’t use any single exit hides in the main cage, but you can add in two exit hides at this point if all remains well.
If it doesn’t go well in neutral, then it may be that the hierarchy has changed and she might not be accepted back.

Fig, by peeing at Honey, wasn’t showing dominance. Peeing at another piggy is telling them to go away, it’s not dominance it’s self defence.

I have added three guides below. The first two detail medication separations, bond issues post op care including companionship. The third explains the bonding/rebonding neutral territory process.

Fingers crossed for them

Bonds In Trouble
Tips For Post-operative Care
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated Bonding Dynamics and Behaviours

Thank you for your help.
I do have some updates. Last night, I cleaned half of the cage and put a divider in, they kept checking eachother out, smelling eachother and eating next to eachother through the bars. Fig chattered her teeth a few times but then stopped. I also got all 3 out in neutral territory, as far away from their cage as possible and it went really well. Some huffing and teeth chattering from Fig, Honey mounted Fig twice and then they just laid next to eachother talking like they did pre-op. Fig would also groom her and Honey cuddled up to her.
Going to do an even longer neutral territory this morning, do a complete full clean of the cage where Fig and Juniper are, and hopefully reintroduce later this afternoon.
Thankfully they weren't apart for long, and I think Fig didnt like Honeys smell as she smelt very medical. Juniper didnt care at all, she loves Honey and seemed to just be happy she was back.

Ill provide an update on whether it goes good or bad.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m glad it went well - hopefully they do still have a bond. Do make sure that you don’t separate them again if it goes well in neutral territory this morning though. I appreciate it was probably late at night and you didn’t want to leave them together without supervision but separation after reintroduction does mean their progress has ended and they now need to start again. Bonding is a one time event and should be seen through to conclusion during that one session rather than stopping and restarting ( which causes stress and can harm their ability to rebond).

Hopefully all goes well this morning and you can move them back to their cage together later today.

 

[adavies2]

I’m glad it went well - hopefully they do still have a bond. Do make sure that you don’t separate them again if it goes well in neutral territory this morning though. I appreciate it was probably late at night and you didn’t want to leave them together without supervision but separation after reintroduction does mean their progress has ended and they now need to start again. Bonding is a one time event and should be seen through to conclusion during that one session rather than stopping and restarting ( which causes stress and can harm their ability to rebond).

Hopefully all goes well this morning and you can move them back to their cage together later today.

I understand, i was really anxious leaving them unsupervised. This morning has had some teeth chattering but everything has calmed down and now we just have a bit of grooming and eating together, little bit of laying together, with only minor tellings off from honey towards both pigs. A few hours in the temp cage and then a full reintroduction in a completely blitzed cage. I have attached a photo of them so far.

Thank you again for your support, I understand ive made some errors, I really wish the vet gave better advice as we did say what our plans were not knocking the vets though, they were great with the surgery.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Glad all is going well.

Just to be clear, their time in the temporary cage is the full reintroduction which is why you can’t rush that bit. Being in the temporary neutral cage is the time you use to decide whether they actually want to be together again. By the time they go to the cage the reintroduction is complete.
(If it fails in the temporary neutral cage then they never get put into the main cage together).

Sometimes vets, no matter how good they are surgically, can underestimate the highly important social aspect of small animals.
Luckily yours have gone back together happily but unfortunately it’s not always the case and we do see similar situations where medical separations have ended bonds.

When any of mine have had surgery, they have just gone back into the normal enclosure with cage mates immediately upon coming home.

 

[adavies2]

Glad all is going well.

Just to be clear, their time in the temporary cage is the full reintroduction which is why you can’t rush that bit. Being in the temporary neutral cage is the time you use to decide whether they actually want to be together again. By the time they go to the cage the reintroduction is complete.
(If it fails in the temporary neutral cage then they never get put into the main cage together).

Sometimes vets, no matter how good they are surgically, can underestimate the highly important social aspect of small animals.
Luckily yours have gone back together happily but unfortunately it’s not always the case and we do see similar situations where medical separations have ended bonds.

When any of mine have had surgery, they have just gone back into the normal enclosure with cage mates immediately upon coming home.

I do have some good news, all 3 pigs calmed down while in a temp cage for a few hours. After about 30 mins of occasional teeth chattering from Fig, they started acting like they were before the surgery.
Eventually all 3 flopped and slept near eachother, woke up and had some hay. A little telling off from Honey like she always does.
I felt confident about putting them back into their cage as the reintroduction was successful, and again, no chasing, no teeth chattering, no mounting in the main cage. Just the occasional telling off as Honey is the leader.

Thank you for your advice, I definitely would have messed up without your guidance. Errors were made, and fortunately they weren't too far gone. Hoping they continue on this non-conflict path. (As I write this, they were sharing a willow ring and wheeked at me)

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m so glad it’s all gone well and they are happily reunited!