Small Animal Cardiology for Veterinary Nurses

This week we will look at how to properly examine a patient’s heart, and we’ll describe the major heart diseases that affect both dogs and cats, outline how they cause disease, how heart disease progresses, and introduce ways we can slow progression! What’s more there’s even some special audio and video resources to help you as well!

Cardiac patients nearly always require thoracic radiographs as part of their disease work-up. This week we will look at the principles behind radiography of the thorax, how to take a good thoracic radiograph, and how to begin the process of accurately interpreting what YOU see on the film – including heart size changes, lung field changes, and a host of other things on the radiograph. We’ll even look at an introduction to cardiac ultrasound too!

This week, we will look at ECGs! We’ll look at how an ECG is formed, how to take a good ECG, and how to interpret what you are looking at on an ECG tracing – and more importantly, what it means for your patient – along with some medications you should know about in the treatment of abnormal heart rhythm!

This week, we will look at heart medications – and what YOU should know about them. We will look at how to monitor the heart patient – both in-hospital and as an outpatient. All this will finish off with a review of emergency management of heart failure from a vet nursing perspective.