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Cat Anatomy Heart and Blood Vessels

Cat anatomy – picture of cat’s heart

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The Heart and the Blood Vessels

The cat has a comparatively small but exceptionally strong heart. As in all animals the heart is a powerful pump comprising the strongest muscle in the body.

It is surrounded by a serous membrane or sac called the pericardium, which under normal circumstances contains a small quantity of lubricating fluid called the pericardial fluid.

The heart comprises two lower chambers with extremely thick walls (the right and left ventricles) and two upper cavities with slightly thinner walls (the right and left auricles). The left-sided chambers are both larger than the right.

As the blood passes round the body, it collects carbon dioxide from the various tissues and this is carried by the veins to the right auricle.

It then passes through a valved opening into the right ventricle and from there the thick walls pump it to the lungs through the pulmonary artery.

In the lungs the carbon dioxide is expelled as the cat breathes out, and oxygen takes its place as the cat breathes in. The oxygenated blood is then carried back to the left auricle by the pulmonary vein. From there it passes through another valved opening into the left ventricle – the most efficient pumping chamber ever created.

The left ventricle pumps the oxygenated blood through the arteries round the entire body (see diagram). The process is continuous, starting when the kitten is in the embryo state within the mother’s womb and stopping only when the cat dies.

Cat Blood Types

Cats have 3 blood types: A, B and AB. Most cats are type A, but incidence of types varies geographically. Virtually all cats in Switzerland are type A, for example, but this drops to 97% in Britain and 85% in France.

Many pedigree breeds are almost exclusively type A, but others show varying levels of type B. Type AB is extremely rare and not linked to breed.

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