Tube Feeding - Potential Problem, Urgent, Please Help

Oh no I am so sorry to hear that.
Sorry for your little sweetheart.

Also worried for my little love now, was starting to feel optimistic but a reminder that anything can go wrong - I'm so worried about losing my boy, I love him so much and it's not even like he's really old or something, sorry am just having a bit of an emotional crisis.

I'm sorry for awaking a feeling of sorrowness and loss of your boy, but I don't think he's in the condition of leaving you early.
You said he's eating fine, so he's on the way to full health

My sweet Lola (pictured left) had a cancer in her mouth, she had no hope... At the end of this month it will be one year

Antonio65 said:

I'm sorry for awaking a feeling of sorrowness and loss of your boy, but I don't think he's in the condition of leaving you early.
You said he's eating fine, so he's on the way to full health

My sweet Lola (pictured left) had a cancer in her mouth, she had no hope... At the end of this month it will be one year

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Oh my goodness, I am so sorry to hear that, poor little love!

Sorry, I've been through so many ups and downs with Radar over the last month that anything can send me into a negativity tailspin if that makes sense, I've been feeling really low lately.

I have had cats so sick or so badly injured that they literally had no hope,everything had been tried to no avail. AND THEY RECOVERED! So don't give up! Cats have an amazing ability to heal themselves. Your sweet Radar is no different, he WILL recover!

So... today's little drama is that the tube is blocked. I've gone out and purchased some carbonated water to try to unclog it, also went up to our regular vet to have prescriptions topped up.

For clogged feeding tube a shot of Coke is great!

I used to leave it rest for a while so that the Coke would lose its sparkles, and then I would use it to flush the tube. Of course if the tube is blocked you have to leave the Coke in the tube for 15 minutes or so, but I can guarantee you that it works fine!

Antonio65 said:

For clogged feeding tube a shot of Coke is great!

I used to leave it rest for a while so that the Coke would lose its sparkles, and then I would use it to flush the tube. Of course if the tube is blocked you have to leave the Coke in the tube for 15 minutes or so, but I can guarantee you that it works fine!

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I can't edit my post anymore.
Before you think I made up the previous advice, this was told to me by the vet who treated my cat for her oral cancer and that had the tube placed in her stomach.
You can easily find some tips of the kind on the web.
I used this method twice while hospicing my cat and she had no consequences at all.

Turns out it wasn't clogged, it actually had a really bad kink in it where it looks as though the finger-trap suture above the stoma got pulled tight around the tube and bent it back on itself, probably due to Radar rubbing the neck bandage on things when he tries his full body rub against something, and shifting the bandage a bit iykwim.

I'm wary about trying to straighten any kink there given that the suture is involved, and how close it is to the stoma (I assume it could be disastrous if it broke right by the entrance and the bottom half sailed off into the stomach, so I have bandaged it and left it alone).

He was eating well up until today (Tuesday) - his food intake was down today and he looked a bit miserable probably due to his mouth being sore, and I wasn't able to tube feed him due to the above - he did eat SOME food at least, just not as much as I'd like. We have a vet appointment booked for tomorrow (Wednesday), so he will be seen by the vet soon.

If anyone has any knowledge or advice at this point, I'd be very grateful - it's just been one mishap after another and I am feeling very sad and disheartened.

OK, it's worse than I thought - we just redid the dressing/bandage on his stoma, and it's REALLY inflamed and swollen. With the last tube in, it always looked a little scabby but otherwise flat and healthy, this doesn't look good.

I'm terrified this could be the end of the line. Please does anyone have any experience with this?

An inflamed and swollen wound MUST be checked by a vet!!! As soon as possible!!!
How is radar? Do you think he's feeling pain or discomfort? Do you feel a temperature on his ears.

My poor Lola had a PEG tube, and despite all the incidents that tube had, the wound never got inflamed. The tube had a rubber pad in the point where it entered the stomach. That pad had been glued (with cyanoacrylate glue, Loctite!) and sutured. The suture got loose and the glue lost its sticking power due to the hair growing beneath.
So I had to be extremely careful whan handling her and the tube for feeding her. She had a bandage that was covering half her body, but it never stayed in the position, despite the tape. It was a nightmare...
Until it came off and fell on the floor where I found one night!

She was syringe fed after that incident, and two days before she died, she was operated for a E-Tube, that was fine until she died. So I do not have much experience with it, I'm sorry...

Anyway, you should RUN to a vet, any vet will do if your is out of hours right now.

So, it turns out I'm a bit prone to unnecessary panic

The vet had a look and said it's not infected and looks perfectly ok, also adjusted the finger trap suture thing on the tube to release where it had been kinked up, and gave it a flush to make sure it was all good.

She was surprised he'd been eating at all, because of the state his mouth was in after he lacerated it the other day. He's gained some more weight which is excellent, and now the tube is useable again I'm feeling a lot happier that on days where he doesn't feel like eating because his mouth is sore I can top him up with a tube feed (or several!) as necessary.

So panic over (for now at least).

Allow me to jump for joy

kskatt said:

I would prefer to pm, but my brain isn't working. Facebook page Feline Assisted Feeding group, they know just about everything about tube feeding. Helped me out a lot in the past. I understand we aren't suppose to refer to other social sites, such as facebook, but this is a support group for specific medical situations. Please let this post stand. Many could benefit.

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OK, goofed. Feline Assisted Feeding is a yahoogroup, not facebook.
Please go check out this group, it is an educational and support group for people needing to assist feed. Finger, spoon, syringe or tube. [email protected]
If you want info, this is the place to go. Not a vet site, but tons of people who have been there done that.

*sigh* - still can't get any food down the tube, the initial flush with water went down ok but no food was moving through.

On the other hand, he has just eagerly gobbled some food that I offered him to see if he would eat after the failure of the tube feed - it's the most interest I've seen in eating since Monday so that could be a sign that his mouth is starting to feel less sore. Will offer him some more in a bit (have been offering little and often to minimise the risk of vomiting)

So will see whether the cola thing works, and check to make sure that it hasn't kinked up again in a way that I can fix, if not will phone the vet in the morning. Assuming he eats again later that is, if not I'll phone tonight and get an appointment for first thing in the morning.

It's not like he hasn't been eating anything so it's not a dire emergency, just not quite as much intake today and yesterday as I would like given that we would ideally like to see some more weight gain, but that's why we've been doing (or trying to do) a top up tube feed fairly late at night if he's been a little unenthusiastic during the day because of his sore mouth. Hopefully he'll eat some more when I offer the next portion.

epona said:

*sigh* - still can't get any food down the tube, the initial flush with water went down ok but no food was moving through.

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That is strange!
The tube is clear, because water goes through, but food doesn't.
The only thing that comes to my mind is that food isn't smooth enough, and clogs somewhere.

Is the food stopping as soon as you begin? I mean, how many ml of food do you manage to syringe down before it stops?
How "smoothly" do you manage to flush the tube? Do you feel that water goes down freely or you feel that you have to push "hard"?

We got 3 ml of food in today (out of 28 as the aim for a tube feed). It's ok because he ate afterwards anyway (he's actually eaten fairly well), then had another meal later, so we're not in some awful emergency right now. It's annoying though because we had his meds in the formula and for the mirtazapine it was our last pill in there and he didn't get much, so I'm going to have to phone our local vet when they open to see if I can get any on prescription.

We also tried aspirating (gently of course) and nothing was moving through the tube either way.

I'm actually more worried about the potential for infection or something like food poisoning if stuff goes in the tube and doesn't go through.

EDIT To add: The food we are giving is Royal Canin Convalescence - it's in a powder form and is mixed with water - 150ml water for a 50g pouch. It mixes in really smoothly. It is thicker than water, but it's not a home-made slurry that I've done myself in a blender - it is designed to go down these tubes - and the fact that it isn't going down is a little worrying.

So you think that the tube might be bent somewhere? Or twisted?
How runny is the food you're trying to syringe down?

Antonio65 said:

So you think that the tube might be bent somewhere? Or twisted?
How runny is the food you're trying to syringe down?

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Sorry, just edited my above post with some of that info about the feed we're giving him.

The tube has already had 1 kink in it which the vet supposedly sorted out yesterday, it was a kink in the finger trap sutured part of the tube - not something I can sort out by myself I don't think, because it involves the suture and is very close to where the tube enters the body which would be the worst place for it to break.

But the vet only flushed it with water - that is something we were able to do, but then food which is a little thicker wouldn't go through.

He has had a pouch of food this morning (half his recommended intake) so it's not a case of him not eating and rushing him back in (unless something else goes horribly wrong, the tube is more of a safety net at this point, rather than critical care)... UNLESS anything in the tube from when we tried to feed him earlier could cause some sort of issue. We put some cola in the tube to dissolve any blockages or dried up crud.

If I don't remember it wrong, once the tube is closed with its top valve, the coke should rest in the tube.
As I have told you, my experience with such a tube was short-lived, but the PEG tube suffered some incidents in its 6 weeks of use.
It got blocked three times!!!
The first time in the attempt to pass some anti-diarrhea med in the tube. I think that it was one of the scariest moments of the hospicing of my cat.
Then it got clogged a few days later when I tried a different food, that was meant for tube feeding, but it proved the contrary.
And again a few days later.
After the first clogging I started the cleaning with the Coke regularly.
I had saved a bit of Coke previously "de-gassed" in a small container to be used every time I wanted to.

How completely does this powder dissolve into water? Are we absolutely sure that it doesn't form any curd?
Sorry for my questions, but I do not know the product... I mean, I was given some sachets of it at the clinic, but I never used them, I didn't trust them at all and preferred to use what I knew better.