Umbilical hernia
Submitted by jihigg on October 31, 2012 - 5:23pmHello, We rescued our 3 or 4 year old bully PorkChop in July so he came to us with an umbilical hernia. The first vet who examined him a couple of days after we got him said it was very small and if it is not bothering him, we can just leave it alone. Today, PorkChop went in for his rabies shot and we saw a different vet at the same office and she is suggesting that we should have it operated on because it could become a problem down the road. My question is if he had this since he was born, wouldnt it have already been a problem for him? I am willing to have the surgery, but since the first vet seem to think it was no big deal, I don't want to have unnecessary surgery either.I've googled this and all I find are articles about puppies with this. Little PorkChop is already middle aged. Any help is appreciated :-)
Jllian and PorkChop and our beloved BullyAngel Rex <3
Small Hernia
I would not see any reason to do a surgery on a very small hernia, that has never gotten larger since birth at his age, and go with the first vet recommendation that nothing needs to be done. Some vets see bulldogs and $$$$ signs and want to do surgery on everything they can think of. IMO unless it becomes obvious that surgery is needed, it isn't worth the risk of surgery. I would also suspect since the dog came from rescue that this was looked at via the rescue orgs vet and not deemed a necessary surgery. You would be surprised to see there are lots of dogs with small umbilical hernias. It is thought by some that these small hernias can be caused by using surgical forceps on the cord, instead of just typing the cord with suture material after cutting.