Heart disease refers to changes in the heart muscle, heart valves and other structural changes that lead to a reduction in cardiac output. In the senior age every tenth dog is affected. Every twenty-fifth cat.
The heart is a pump consisting of four chambers. A right and a left collect blood before the tricuspid or mitral valve opens to allow blood to enter the heart chambers. Please have a look at our heart diagram below this paragraph. If you move the mouse pointer over the illustration, the labels of the sections appear. The right blue side of the heart contains venous, oxygen-depleted blood. From the main chamber, the blood goes to the lungs to be enriched with oxygen. The left area of the heart, shown in red, contains oxygen-rich blood from the lungs, which is expelled into the body through the left main chamber via the to supply nutrients and oxygen to the organs. The heart may beat independently with its own rhythm, or be controlled by the vagus nerve.
Schematic diagram of the heart: