What is a Heart Disease?
Heart disease can be congenital or developed over time. Therefore, you need to be aware of the signs of heart disease to detect the signs early. Preventative care in this area can be all the difference. Regular check ups help keep tabs on this disease.
While this issue is more common in smaller dogs, irregardless 95% of issues come as the dog ages. Diet, age, weight, and breed type play a key role in your dog’s susceptibility to this disease.
What Are The Main Types?
While there are extenuating circumstances and situations, there are two main types of heart disease.
Valve Disease: A valve disease will cause irregular blood flow, which will cause heart murmurs. These murmurs are graded from 1-6 on severity. Most dogs can live normal lives with heart murmurs. The key is seeing the proper professionals to put a plan in place to keep symptoms and risks mitigated.
Heart Muscle Disease: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is where the heart muscles degenerate over time. When the muscle loses its strength, its function to pump blood is affected. Long term, this is what leads to congestive heart failure. While this condition isn’t solvable, with the right medications, it is treatable.
Keeping a diligent eye on your dog and having scheduled checkups is essential to identifying issues like this early one when things are treatable and unfavorable events can still be prevented.
Preventative care is the key to keeping your dog happy and healthy.