Hiya everyone. I wonder what some of your views are about
breeding with a bitch that has an umbilical hernia.
The reason I am asking is that I have a stud dog and have
been contacted by someone with a bitch that they want
mated in June time. They told me she has a hernia. I
had always been told that you should not mate a bitch with a
hernia as when they are in whelp the stomach could pop.
So I have never put a bitch in pup with a hernia. The couple
have contacted their vet and the vet has told them to mate
the bitch and it will be fine. The couple have now visited me
as I asked to see the bitch and I had a look at the hernia and
is size is roughly two inches by two inches. My vet has said do not mate the
bitch as it could be hereditary, also the strain on the stomach
can be too much. So I am getting two different view points.
So my question is to everyone. Should you mate a bitch if
it has a hernia for hereditary reasons? Has anyone mated their
bitch and had bad experiences with hernias? I think if I get some
background on a few view points I can make a better judgement
on what to do. My feelings at the moment are do not mate the
bitch. But I must be fair to them and tell them sooner than later.
Nutkin.

Hi - this link has some posts from when this topic came up a few months ago
breeding and hernia
HTH Sara

Thanks SaraW
I had a good look and mostly people have said what
I thought. What seems strange to me is why the
lady with the bitch to be mated has said that her vet
thinks she should breed the bitch. He is a friend of
hers and would like one out of the litter, which makes
me wonder again, why being a vet would he promote
breeding with hernias. I am a bit puzzled over this.
Nutkin

If the hernia is that big (2" x2") I definitely wouldn't. You can get small hernias - maybe half the size of my little finger-nail, that may just have been trauma at whelping, but that one - no, sorry.

Jo and the Casblaidd Flatcoats

I have never bred from anything dog or bitch with a hernia, so can't comment on it other than to say that I would not. I was chairperson for a national childrens charity which supported parents and children born with gastroschisis and exomphalos. These conditions are connected to hernias and ften referred to as hernias. The children are born with literally their insides outside. The reason for this is that when an embryo develops the guts develop first and the covering skin and muscle develops after that. But in some cases the muscle and skin does not develop and cover the insides so the children are born with their insides outside. I have seen this a lamb in the past. I would hate to see it in a puppy. These children and the lamb I saw are born alive, the children can survive and after many operations to stretch the skin and muscle will be ok. The lamb sadly was standing up when we found it with it's insides around it's tiny feet.

Hi, I'm the one who asked the question the last time, as it turned out, my girl was not pregnant at all, just getting fat. But she also has the closed over type, I believe mine girls was caused at birth because it did close over witha bit a fat left out. The ones that can be pushed back in, are the kind that are thought to be hereditary, and I would not breed from one with this. The risks are too great. And if not immediate, ones (risks)that will be carried down the line because of this breeding.

Polly, What you describe is exactly what happened with one of my bitches puppies, and it truly was horrible. The pup was born breathing though stopped after a few seconds, cleo kept trying to clean it, and gnawing... Makes me feel sick just thinking about it. No hernias or anything in the line, just incomplete development due to either bacteria in the uterus (though all tests were done) or more likely the same recessive gene in both dog and bitch. Trust me, no one ever wants to see that, ever.

In children there is no known reason or cause for this to happen. Research is tgoing on all the time, and so far the cause is still a mystery. The sad thing is though that it is on the increase. John was the treasurer for this charity and during the time we were in office, we saw the incidence grow from something like 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 4,000! Many people are wondering about pollution. Obviously as dog breeders we see generations of dogs in our life time yet with children it is harder to see why the sudden increase happened as there are less generations involved. In dogs I think it must be inherited to a greater degree than in people, since we do see breeds which seem to have a known inheritance for umbilical hernia. In the lambs case thankfully I have only ever seen it once and hope to never see it again.

Obviously in dogs the gene pool for even a numerically large breed is very small in comparison to the size of human gene pool in even an area as small as the British Isles. Again, in even a numerically large breed, just how many active stud dogs are there? And I mean not the ones who have sired one litter, I'm talking of active? 1000? 100? 10? Possibly in the 10's rather than the hundreds! Check your show catalogues if you don’t believe me!

Regards, John

Hi John, I'm out of touch with lab pedigrees now, but in my breed there is one (lovely) dog who has been very extensively used, as he improves on almost every bitch and has produced many Champions from differing lines. It is now very hard to find a good winning dog at stud, to use, that does not have him as a sire or grandsire, if you have one of his daughters/grandaughters you have to line breed to him or go "right out".