Hiya! I wanted to make a new thread on this topic for advice. My girl had a cystotomy a few months back and just before Christmas was diagnosed with a hernia at the site where surgery was done. It doesn’t cause her any pain but I am concerned it’s got slightly bigger but only slightly. The vet was quite keen to do surgery to fix it however I’m more hesitant. We were so lucky she got through the cystotomy I don’t know if we’d be lucky for a hernia repair again. I’m just on here to see if anyone has any advice or if anyone’s been in the same situation. I’m very upset and angry as I never expected this to occur from surgery especially months later. Thank you. Xx
Hi
Hernias can happen occasionally as a late post-neutering complication in boars; they are very rare in sows.
What you need to consider are two things:
- As long as only fatty issue is passing through the tiny gap, your girl will be fine. The hernia can grow and shrink over time. However, the moment a piece of gut slides through this will mean an any time of the day or night emergency pts because the trapped piece of gut will swell up and not retract. It is extremely painful and not operable.
Whether a hernia operation is the better option depends on how great the risk of of a piece of gut slipping through is. It is higher in a piggy where a hernia is growing fairly fast.
- There is a small risk that the stress that has caused the little hernia hole can travel to another area and cause a new hernia. This risk is higher in boars who have had their testicles removed so the stress can shift from one side to the other. You may want to discuss the likelihood of this happening with your vet. It very much depends on where the scar sits and its size and which is only something your vet can advise you on.
My Nosgan (who I adopted after his neutering operation aged 3) developed a hernia about half a year later. Since the hernia operation had to happen in an already operated area where the natural markers had been removed and with the warning that the stress could simply shift (as my husband was experiencing at the time with developing a second hernia on the other side within a month after his first one had been operated), my vet recommended to just leave it and I decided to follow their advice. Sadly, two years later, the hernia started to move and grow again and eventually a piece of gut did slip through. Nosgan was by that time 5 years old and had lived an average life span, though.
You will have to make your own decision.
PS: Please don't be angry with your vet. Hernias are NOT a common complication that is necessarily easily preventable. There are several other factors playing into the formation of one that are not in your vet's control. There is never a 100% success rate with operations, not even in the very best of surgeons.
