An ECG is a simple test to check the heart’s health. It is painless and no electricity is sent through the body.
To understand this test, let’s see how the heart works:

1) The heart is the centre of the circulatory system (a network of blood vessels that goes through all the body, carrying oxygenated blood to all the organs and bringing carbon dioxide back to be oxygenated again).The heart is the muscular organ in charge of pumping blood to the body.
2) The heart uses electricity to contract its walls so as to pump the blood through the blood vessels.
3) The ECG records that electrical activity.

The information collected through an ECG (EKG) helps to find:

• any heart damage
• how fast the heart is beating
• if the beating rhythm is normal
• size and position of the heart chambers

At Sitara Animal Hospital we have an electrocardiogram which measures the electrical impulses of the heart. This in conjunction with knowledge from cardiac X-rays and sometimes ultrasound allows us to diagnose and treat heart conditions as accurately as possible.