CHAPTER XIII. 



SURGICAL TREATMENT OF HERNIA. 



General Remarks. — The hernias commonly seen in the 

 dog and cat are umbilical, abdominal, and inguinal. Scrotal, 

 perineal, and femoral are met with, but are comparatively 

 rare. Care must be taken to differentiate between tumours 

 and abscesses occurring in these regions and hernia. In some 

 cases this is by no means an easy matter, even to those who 

 have had considerable experience. In hernial sacs one must 

 endeavour to trace the form of the herniated organs by careful 

 manipulation between the finger and thumb, and if there is 

 any doubt about the matter the patient should be again 

 examined after a course of purgative medicine and fasting. 



MoUer^ states that inguinal hernia only occurs in bitches 

 which have already borne young, but between the years 1896 

 and 1899 we have met with five .cases in females which have 

 never been lined by the dog. It is most frequently met with 

 on the left side. As a rule, in these cases, the contents of the 

 sac consist of one or both horns of the uterus ; frequently, in 

 addition, one finds intestine and omentum. In one case met 

 with in April 1896,^ a small Manchester terrier bitch, with a 

 double inguinal hernia, had in the right sac a portion of the 

 small intestine, the pancreas, omentum, bladder, right horn of 

 the uterus, the caecum, and even a portion of the rectum. 

 Sometimes a single horn of the uterus is found to be herniated 

 in each inguinal region, and occasionally one or two foetuses 

 are present. In one instance met with by the author a fox- 



' MoUer's "Surgery" (Dollar's translation), p. 258. 



'' "Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics," Vol. X., p. 171. 



