Umbilical Hernia

Our dog has one.  We were told by our vet that it poses no health risk.  It just looks like she has an "outy."  When we had her spayed, he said he could fix it if we wanted, but we just left it as it would be a way to identify her if she ever got lost and someone found her. 

Firstly it's important to make SURE you are dealing with an honest to goodness hernia which is somewhat rare and not a delayed midline closure which is very, very common.

Hernias are reducilble..which means you can push them BACK into the body and they will slowly "ooze" back out again. Delayed closures will not. Hernias can be dangerous if it is bowel coming thru as eventually it could become strangulated and cause a big issue.

I have had two delayed closures and in both cases...what seemed a hernia...squishy nub outside near the bellybutton...was actually a bit of FAT trapped outside the body...and entailed nothing more intense than a general anesthetic...small incision..snipped fat....and a coupld stitches. On Xray you could see the fully closed abdominal line...with the fat on the outside.

So first and foremost make sure you have a honest to goodness reducible hernia before you figure out the course of action. In general a hernia can be repaired during neuter or spay...

You CAN address delayed closure or hernia in small neonate puppies by using a penny and an ace bandage But there're ethical concerns with that.

A dog with an umbilical repair CAN be shown in conformation...inguinal hernia repair CANNOT.

Beau had a reducible hernia.  It was fixed when he got neutered.

 How much more did it cost you to fix it while he was neutured, if you don't mind my asking.

Ya know, I honestly don't remember.  I'll have to look and see if I still have his records somewhere.  I know it was nothing outrageous.

I think it's at most $30 extra...they are already in there so most of the anesthetic charges etc occur no matter what due to the s/n. Might be more in a dog tho where they weren't opening the abdomen....than a bitch where they were.

Jewlieee

 How much more did it cost you to fix it while he was neutured, if you don't mind my asking.

I looked it up, and it cost me a little more than I remembered -- $43.

Thanks for the info! That's not bad at all. My vet said that their surgeries are priced  based on time so I don't expect that'll take that much more time to do.