Brownie’s unusual hernia repair
Little Brownie is a three year old Maltese cross. He was desexed at about 6 months of age as a young dog before he became a client of PAH. Brownie had had several bouts of being very uncomfortable. There was one other very unusual thing about Brownie, the swelling had never gone down in his scrotum. That was enough to pique Dr Jill’s interest.
Brownies scrotum was unusually swollen and what was more, the swelling extended up to his inguinal canal which is in his inner thigh. Brownie had a scrotal hernia, the blue whale of hernia’s in dogs. Dr Jill had never seen one before but it was obviously causing Brownie pain.
To repair the hernia it needed to be exposed, resected then the defect or hole into the abdomen repaired. It was time to get out a book. In over 30 years of being a vet, Dr Jill had not seen a scrotal hernia.
Brownie was anaesthetised and prepped for surgery.
The defect letting hernial contents out of Brownies abdomen was at least 10mm wide. You could poke your finger through it. This meant fat and the sensitive peritoneal membranes had been coming in and out and being constantly pinched. It would be really uncomfortable and cause Brownie ongoing discomfort. 
Brownie recovered well, though despite pain relief he was quite sore in the first few days.
10 days later the repair was healed and Brownie arrived at PAH much happier. 
All the swelling had gone and Brownie could get on with life without the ongoing pain. Dr Jill is ready to operate on the next scrotal hernia… maybe in another 30 years.
