Q. my dog got his lungs full of flem a decade ago and the vet warned he was soon to die.how does that work?
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You MAY HAVE congestive heart failure. This is how THAT works: "Heart failure occurs when your heart muscle doesn't contract hard enough to pump as much blood as the body needs. "Failure" doesn't mean that the heart isn't pumping at all, just that it is failing to pump as well as it should. When the heart muscle has been damaged by long-term high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, a heart attack, or other conditions (such as injury or infection of the heart muscle), it is harder for the heart to pump blood.
Heart failure most often results when the left ventricle has been damaged. The left ventricle is the heart chamber that pumps blood out to the body. When the left ventricle is damaged (by a heart attack, for example), the weakened muscle doesn't have the strength to pump enough blood out. Blood left behind in the heart ventricle takes up space needed for incoming blood from the lungs. Congestive heart failure occurs when blood that is attempting to flow into the left ventricle from the lungs backs up into the lungs. Over time, the whole pump mechanism begins to break down and the right ventricle weakens too. The right ventricle receives blood from the body and pumps it to the lungs for oxygen. When the right ventricle can't pump well, blood backs up in the body.
The earliest and most common symptoms of heart failure are caused by fluid build-up in the lungs, abdomen, or legs."
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