Foal with a Very sticky out bellybutton!!

Chermar

Chermar

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As above, foal is now 10 weeks old and her bellybutton is still very sticky outty, we have a 1/2 sister of hers in the yard (same Mum) has the same but we had been told it's a hernia by Very experienced person but not vet. I'm just wondering is this the same or is there anything we should be doing for the foal before it's too old? I was lucky enough to experience this foal being born and she suffered no trauma and umbilical cord just broke naturally. Anyone had experience of this or is it nothing to worry about?

Thanks
 
Dependant on what the vets do over there, there are a couple of options with Hernias.....

It does sound like an umbilical hernia on the both of them..... it is not necessarily a genetic thing - it is not all that uncommon..... We have had a few here with some of our horses at times.

If the hernia is 2 fingers or less (meaning you can stick 2 fingers side by side in the 'hole' of the 'pokey outy bit' which should be soft and squishy), then it can be simply banded off with two lamb tailing rings and a big safety pin put through it, and it will fall off by itself.

If its bigger than that, it will need repairing surgically.

This is a fairly simple operation - just knock the horse out with sedatives, open up, stitch it inside and out - the last one we had done surgically had 4 layers of stitches... his was fairly big and his intestines actually started coming out - scarey for a few minutes while everyone dove in and pushed them back in!!!

Its not terribly expensive either - I think the hernia repair itself was about $700 (thats Australian), which translates to about 250 pound sterling....

There doesnt have to be any trauma for it to occur.

An umbilical hernia is much preferred over an inguinal hernia (hernia in the scrotum of colts). Much easier to deal with, and generally are quite easy to fix.

Occasionally you will get a huge hernia that takes more than just a simple op, but you would probably find that the youngster would have other issues to go along with this if too much of his/her intestine was pushed through the hole.

Small hernias are generally made up of just fatty tissue, and its pretty easy to deal with :)

Best bet would be to consult your vet and take it from there :)

But you dont have to stress about your horses insides falling on the ground just yet :) If they are really small, sometimes they say to just leave them and they CAN heal themselves over time.... but they have to be pretty small for that!
 
I have had a couple of foals with umbilical hernias over the years, they are often hereditary, if it's a small hernia it sometimes will sort itself out in a couple of months. With larger hernias there is a risk of gut strangulation.
Your vet will be able to tell you whether it will be surgical, if so the foal will need to go to the surgery with her mum as she will require a general anaesthetic for the repair. Don't worry, it's very straightforward surgery.
The most difficult bit is that the foal will need to be kept on box rest (with her mum) for about six weeks to allow the wound to heal.
 
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