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Treatment

Dogs with congestive heart failure should be hospitalized until they are stable. Open heart surgery may be necessary to repair the defect, but this is often very expensive. Consult with your veterinarian the best and most affordable course of treatment for you and your pet. For some secundum-type defects, an amplatzer device may be implanted to close the hole.

Living and Management

The prognosis in dogs with ASD depends on the size of the defect and coexisting abnormalities, though it is often guarded to poor. Small, isolated defects, for example, are unlikely to progress, while primum-type defects are typically larger with a worse prognosis.