Florrie nearly one year old !

Turned on the computer this afternoon after my last blog to see these lovely photo's below of Florrie who is nearly a year old & her Mum is Bonnie & Dad Charlie. Amy who's family she is part of says she is happy as ever & never stops wagging her tail. Thanks Amy for the update & photo's of your beautiful Florrie.
They have decided to get Florrie spayed now as was the plan as Florrie has a small umbilical hernia which Amy new about when she bought her & that she was not to be bred from. Whilst being spayed it is an ideal time to repair it as well. An umbilical hernia is were the umbilical cord from the placenta joined the puppy inside Mum & for a variety of reasons does not heal right over living a hole which intestine can be pushed through. Florrie's hernia is small & it is only the fact that she is being spayed that it might as well be closed up at the same time. If a very small hernia other than for cosmetic reasons it will do no harm but if it is big enough to cause strangulation of the intestine must be repaired. This is were enough intestine pushes through & then the hole causes pressure causing the intestine to be blocked & this will need repairing as could cause serious health problems & death to a dog. 
The reasons for a umbilical hernia can be hereditary, trauma to the umbilical cord by Mum pulling to vigouriously when born & infection in the umbilical whilst healing over after birth. I never breed from a dog or bitch with an umbilical herni & would only ever sell a pup with an umbilical hernia as a pet strongly advising to neuter when old enough. It is very tempting to breed from a lovely looking bitch or dog especially when it is only a small hernia but there is a high occurance of umbilical hernia's in Cavaliers so I feel this problem in this breed on most occassions has an hereditary cause so feel strongly that if they have an umbilical hernia should not be bred from. If we get a umbilical hernia in a litter we do not repeat that mating & in the last 2 years we have had 4 litters of Cavaliers with 3 pups with umbilical herni's & in this period we have had 4 litters of Cavapoo's with no hernia's.