Think your pet has heart problems?
If you are worried that something is seriously going wrong with your pets heart then there are a few things that you can check before rushing off to the local animal hospital.
There is a major problem with the early stages of a cat and dog having heart failure and that is that they have no visible signs at all which is why it is best to have it dagnosed through an evaluation by a vet.
Things that occur with both cats and dogs with mild to moderate heart failure can sometimes experience heart enlargement, coughing, lethargy and difficulty breathing.
To check if there is some really severe heart failure is going on you can usually tell by the animal having difficulty breathing (even when at rest), fainting, not wanting to exercise, loss of appetite and weight loss. It is also a good to check if your pet is drooling a lot as even drooling can be involved so watch carefully to see if your dog is drooling (more than usual).
If some of these symptoms to exist then it is best to go directly to your local animal surgery and have your vet take a look at your pet.
There are ways that your vet may check to see if your pet has heart problems are EKG, chest x-rays, blood testing, or a heart ultrasound. The ultrasound is going to be the one to be of the most use to you as it gives your vet the ability to be able to see and measure the heart disease.
If the worst comes to the worst and there is something wrong with your pet then it is not to worry as there are many vets now that are experts in pets cardiology enabling them to even a pacemaker into your pet.
If you are really thinking that your pet could be suffering from one or some of these symptoms then it is best to at least get it checked to rule out a heart conditon. If left untreated it can result in worse problems or even death of a pet which as everyone who has gone through that knows it is not easy to have a pet pass over.
