Ranger was born at Spicemill on 4 July 2009 from Venka and Apoll America litter.

Our veterinary surgeon noticed he had a heart murmur at the litter check just before the puppies reached 7 weeks. So Ranger was booked for another check 10 days later to check on the progression of the murmur. Unfortunately, there was still a significant murmur so we took Ranger to a specialist clinic in Surrey where an ultrasound revealed a very serious problem. Our poor little pup was born with 2 heart defects. He has pulmonic stenosis together with tryscupid displasia. This is a very rare defect in our breed, in fact, the British club does not seem to have any report of such problem in our breed. His life expectancy is unfortunately much reduced. We discussed the various options with the heart specialist, but his problem cannot unfortunately be fixed by surgery or medication. So we have decided to keep Ranger and let him live as normal a puppyhood as possible. He spends a lot of time with our Scamp and they are great friends. We know he will not be around for long, but we are enjoying the time we have with him and do our best to make his life, however short it may be, a good one.

A little more about heart problems in hovawart

It seems that the most common heart defect reported in hovawarts is aortic stenosis and we have actually been unable to located other owners who have had hovawarts with pulmonic stenosis. We are aware this does not mean it has never happen. But there is no obvious genetic link. We have obviously informed the Hovawart Club of Great Britain and the owner of the stud dog of Ranger's problem so a log of it can be made and we can be informed of other arising cases. If anybody reading this page know of any hovawarts born with this heart defect, we would like to hear about them, even if they are not related to our lines. It is interesting to us to obtain any information that could confirm or not that there is a genetic link.