Hello all,

After the last time I asked a question here and got so much help and suggestions, I'm coming back for another one! :)

I got a litter of three 4 weeks old ones. 2 of them have little soft bumps at the umbilical cord area. They only show if I turn the pups on their backs and I can kind of push them down and they pop back up.

I'm thinking umbilical hernia and have spoken to my vet about it. Or could it be something else? She says that as long as the area is not red and painful and the puppy is fine, then this is normal and often time will get rid of it. But that we need to keep an eye on it.

I would just love to hear some of you experience with this. Have you seen it often and what has been the outcome of it?

Mum sorted the cords out her self during birth and I didn't feel there was a need to help her out. She seemed to know what she was during :) and the cords were about 3 cm afterwards.

Sorry if this has been discuses several times already. I tried to do a seach on this site, but nothing really came up.

Kind regards,

Saive

It does sound like a hernia, we had a litter last year and 1 male puppy had a hernia, quite big (bigger than a malteser) our vet always says if they are bigger than a malteser she would operate, anyway she did and he was home the same day, and you couldnt tell she had done anything. They are usually harmless.

It certainly sounds like small hernias, which are more common in some breeds (suggesting a hereditary influence) than others. If you turn the puppies on their backs (easy when cuddling them!) and push the hernias back you can sometimes get the muscle to close over them and retain them properly. If not then they might need them corrected when they're older.

How old was your puppy annastasia when the operation was done? Just wondering how early something like that could be done..

If it does need sorting, then it would be nice if it was possible before they are leaving for their new homes.. but saying that, the girl, which has the biggest lump of them, is staying with us anyway. Just one of the boys has it and it is very small with him.. And the idea of operating on such a small pup does not sounds good.

But the girls is just about smaller than a malteser. :)

I recently had a bitch cleaning up pups, and leaving cords exceptionally short. I thought that she was doing fine all by herself, and didn't intervene.  Vet thought that this had caused the hernia on one puppy in the litter.

The little boy had already been chosen, but I wasn't willing to let him leave home like it.  Not after the vet said that it could be ok, but may need doing later.  I wasn't prepared to assume that the new owners would even notice if things did go wrong later down the line.

I informed the new owners that he couldn't leave home as planned, and if they wanted to change their minds about having him, then fine.  But if they still wanted him, I preferred to have the hernia repaired (at my expense), before he left home.

They still wanted the pup, and I kept him for one week after the operation, to make sure that everything was fine.  The operation was carried out at 8 weeks, on a toy breed puppy, and the op went just fine, and the pup was fine.

> I informed the new owners that he couldn't leave home as planned, and if they wanted to change their minds about having him, then fine.  But if they still wanted him, I preferred to have the hernia repaired (at my expense), before he left home.
>
> They still wanted the pup, and I kept him for one week after the operation, to make sure that everything was fine. 

Yes same here, i think he was a little older, about 10 weeks old, a large breed.

To be honest his bigger than a malteser, not as big as a golf ball but inbetween. He was fine as soon as we brought him home, he ate a meal that evening.

http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/board/topic/113126.html

Try reading this thread.
What you are describing does sound like a late closure rather than a hernia.

yes i can tell you now it was a late closure ,the bitch is fine now and didnt need anything done it her ,shes healthy and a very little happy girl :)