Hovawart Health Issues
The Hovawart is one of the healthiest breed of dog there is, it has a typical life span of 14 to 15 long years. In fact, according to he Hovawart Club of America, this breed has no particular disease attached to its name. Hip dysplasia, eye problem and hypothyroidism are the most common health related issues that this dog may encounter which are all common illness of any breed and does not affect Hovawart alone.
Let us start with hip dysplasia, this condition is not surprising to see in large breed dog but Hovawart has remarkably low rates as compared to other huge dogs. The incidence and severity may be brought about by gaining weight while the dog is growing or genetically passed from parents to offspring. Diet of the dog must be controlled and monitored especially the calorie intake for the first 9 months, take note that extremely high calories can expedite the growth. Contrary to the notion that rapid dog growth will result to a larger dog, this will only predispose him to hip dysplasia or the other 238 joints in Hovawart.
Know the signs of symptoms of hypothyroidism, a condition where the thyroid glands is not active enough to produce sufficient amount of thyroid hormones, as a result your dog will manifest lethargy, heavy shedding of hair, anemia, hyper pigmentation, high level of cholesterol, noticeable gain in weight and other symptoms that is related. This illness is usually passed from the genes of the parents to the offspring, so the there’s nothing much that the pet owners can do about this but the breeders are now meticulously studying to eradicated the hypothyroid genes to Hovawart.
There have also been reported cases of Hovawart having some eye problem so it has been required that all breeding stock should have a CERF eye test at least a year prior to breeding.
