From what i know, the feet of an animal should always be on the table. This is due to the fact that aside from health reason's, the animal usually feels more comfortable not on it's back.
The heart has an intrinsic conduction system that causes electrical activity in the heart muscles causing them to contract. The intrinsic conduction system is made up specialized cells, that contain nerve and muscular characteristics.
The muscle cells in the heart are linked together by gap junctions, allowing cardiac action potentials to travel from one muscle cell to another.
Atrioventricular (AV) node. The damage to the AV node causes the electrical signals traveling from the upper chambers to the lower chambers to be impaired causing an AV block.