when i took my girl for her hipscoring the vet noticed a very small hernia which he said would not affect my bitch if i wanted to breed from her ,her hipscore has come back and it is very good ,but i thought i would have the hernia repaired and wait a year before breeding her. when i contacted my insurers about it they said that usually hernias get repaired when a bitch is spayed [which they do not cover] i told them i did not want her spaying but i would have to pay the excess ,their reply was hernias are cosmetic not medical.i can not believe it i have 6 dogs insured with them and in 7 years i have never made a claim ,i am thinking about cancelling my insurance and putting the money straight into a account just for vet bills ,as anyone else had a problem like this

They will say anything to get out of paying up. Ask yourself this question, If you had a hernia yourself would it be considered cosmetic or a medical op?
Someone i know (not doggie) had a hernia and the silly fool waited untill he was in soooooo much pain to go and get it seen to (15 years to be excact) and he was told  waiting list was 6 months for op. Well 2 months later pain getting worse went to hospital operated next day. If he had waited for 1 more week he would of been dead!!! It could of cost him his life if left untreated. I don't know if its the same for a dog but i would of thought so. Ask for a second oppinion just to make sure

I doubt it would be covered, if it was there from a pup then it would have been prior to insuring her ?

There are lots of different types of hernia. Many dogs go through life with unrepaired small hernias without any effect.  if the vet has said it will not affect her, why put her through a GA?

Not wishing to start a debate here, but my vet told me that because my girl had a hernia that I shouldn't breed from her, because no matter how small a problem, it was a problem and could be passed on to the pups!  I got the opinion from 4 different vets 3 out of the 4 said the same :-(

We never did breed from her and the hernia was repaired later when she was spayed, the hernia was actually bigger under the skin than visible from the outside................but my vet did say that it may have been covered under her kc puppy insurance when we first bought her.

depends on the breed of dog as some are predisposed to umbilical hernias such as lhaso apso and mostly small breeds if you have the hernia repaired as a cosmetic thing then it is altering the natural confirmation of the dog so therefore you have to inform the kennel club, usually if a hernia is big when the dog is a puppy it is an emergency procedure to reduce the hernia to stop a piece of bowel from hernialting through in which case insurers will usually pay but if it is purely cosmetic then they do not have to pay out for that as it is not accident or illness and would have been present when you purhcased the dog so therefore they have the right to refuse payment. A dog with a confirmation fault such as this should not be bred from as it may well be apssed on to  the puppies.

I had a vet that said that but in my breed you are never going to be off getting at least one hernia in the litter as the mothers are such cord tuggers that they can pop the stomach if you dont watch them.
I would breed a dog with a small (pea sized) hernia. But if it was large and intestine poking out then I would have the bitch spayed and not breed from her. Mainly because it is said these types are herediatary yet the small pea fat lumps are not. Everyone has to just make their own mind up.
Can I just say that since I get the cord to dry up quicker that I have had less hernias, and smaller ones. Also the largest hernia I have ever had was because the bitch had a c.section and the vet cut the cord off at the stomach of the pup and put a stitch in it as he bodged it up so badly. 
I use Sterzac powder on cords now and this tends to dry them up quicker and the bitches leave the cords alone more.

Think it is the opinion of vets and scientists that all hernias present shortly after birth are hereditary and are a weakness of the muscles either at the navel or the groin, those at the groin I believe should be repaired and those at the navel can be left if the fault does not extend too far along the line between the muscles that runs from the navel to the pelvis along the centre line, In both cases it is best that the dogs are not bred from. It could be that it is so prevalent in a particular breed that not breeding from dogs with this fault would be not breeding at all. It is possible that a bitch tugging at the cord could open the weakness in the muscle but that would not happen if the weakness was not there in the first place.