Hi  my 15 month old terrier has a hernia in her tummy .she has  had her first season and is due her second one some time soon . l was wondering if the hernia would cause any problems in mating her. when l told the vet about it when she was 6 months old he said dont worry it will be fine with no treatment. We now want to mate her and were concerned if it would cause a problem for her in pregnancy   or welping thanks

i dont think she should be bred from. one reason is the hernia could well affect the pegnancy or get worse during it but also because it may be inherited and pups could be born with it too. do you have families lined up for the pups?

I take it you are talking about umbilical hernia, if her hernia has not corrected itself by the time she was 6 months she needs surgery to correct it now. She should also be spayed since this is a defect that can be passed onto her puppies- no reason to bring animals into the world with possibilty on passing defect- better to enjoy her as a pet.

http://www.showdogsupersite.com/kenlclub/breedvet/umbilical.html

Hi our bitch has an umbilical hernia, and she is almost 4 years old.  She gave birth to a litter of 4 puppies 8 weeks ago, and none of them have hernias.  Our older bitch had 5 puppies 4 years ago (she had a hernia and 3 out of the 5 puppies had hernias, so we had her spayed after she had the puppies) Our older bitch did have her hernia corrected by an operation, but our youngest bitch has not had a problem with hers and our vet said its fine to leave it as long as it does not grow any bigger.  (Its about the size of a marble) Dont no if this helps at all.  :-)

i have a ch. male with a hernia and none of his offspring have it. his was caused by an overzealous bitch doing cords and nearly all his litter have them. it depends on whether yours is hereditary and I suppose in a bitch youd have to be a little careful about how severe it was.

Actually depends on the severity of the hernia, some are so small that you really can't see them and never need operating on.  I've only ever had one dog with one an like Sam was due to an overzealous mother.  The owners never got back to me so presume it never needed operating on.

in our breeds,tibetan spaniels,hernias are common place and dont seem to affect bitches pregnancy or mating if small umbilical ones,but the general consencus amongst tib people is that inguinal hernias (groin area) can cause complications and so a bitch with inguinal herinas should not be bred from.on a personal note our britney had a hernia and when she needed a ceasarian the vet fixed the hernia at the same time. her offspring are all fine with small hernias and our vet sees no reason to operate unless they are going to be neutered/speyed and then he said he will fix them then.in quite a few breeds hernias are so commonplace that some breeders no longer even notice them,although it can be a struggle convincing joe public that they arent some terrible ailment.be aware that if you mate your bitch she may produce pups with hernias and they can be harder to sell/find homes for because of this.

umbilical hernias are common in my breed too.  If other than a small hernia your bitch is fit, healthy and a good example of your breed then I don't see why you should not consider having a litter from her. As others have said though - size does matter. A small hernia is not likely to cause any problems during pregnancy and whelping.