This is a bulge in the area where it's located at, and is where fat or an organ goes through a small hole opening in to the surrounding area of the dog's body. There are numerous types listed here and each type is named for the area that is affected. With each type you will see a bulge in the area where the organ is popping through. No matter what part of the body it is located at, it is critical to have your vet repair it so that it does not continue to pop through the opening.
If the blood supply is cut off then it can become a strangulated hernia, which means that the area that is coming through the opening can die off and can become infected. This is a life threatening emergency situation and must be taken to your veterinarian immediately or your dog could die. The most common type I hear of dogs getting are the Inguinal, which is in the groin area on the dog. They can be on either side, or on both sides. I've even heard of some having as many as four of these that had to be repaired. I would recommend if you're having surgery to repair one of these, to have the vet look closely at them during the checkup in case there is another one that needs corrected at the same time.
Some of the most common types are:
Umbilical hernia
Inguinal hernia
Diaphragmatic hernia
Testicular hernia
It's important to understand the importance of a Yorkshire Terrier hernia because it does need repaired by the veterinarian before it strangulates. Since you can quite often gently push the bulge back up inside the hole, some people assume that it will be alright, but in fact too often it won't. I've known of dogs to live with one for years, past middle age and suddenly it caused serious problems and they lost the dog because of it, whereas surgery could have corrected this problem many years earlier. The surgery is one that the vet goes inside and stitches the hole closed so that nothing can come through it any longer. I have known and had calls from many people that the dog's hernia was causing a problem and they had to rush to their vet for emergency surgery. It's best to take care of these situations in advance rather than take a chance with emergencies since the dog is then in a compromised health situation and the surgery becomes much more complicated and serious. The repaired dogs can not be shown per AKC rules. They should not be used in a breeding program as this can be genetic and is very hard to breed away from. The people I know that have it in their lines, seem to take generations to try and get away from the problem. Certain lines in Yorkshire Terriers tend to produce large numbers of these whereas others do not and the first start to eliminating them from your line is to not use one for breeding.
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