Advice for Feeding Tube

SpaceLamb

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Brand new here and unfortunately brought here because of some health issues.

A cat plague made its way through my house and 5 of my babies caught a URI. Three made it through just fine like we expected but two of them really struggled and eventually stopped eating completely. This led us to having two e-tubes placed so we could make sure they were getting enough nutritious so they could fight the URI. Things have been going ok other than my boy vomiting up his entire last meal.

I guess I’m just looking for some tips on feeding through e-tubes from some people who have been through it before. Thanks in advance!
 

sabian

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I have no experience with anything like this but, perhaps Jcatbird Jcatbird has in the past or may know someone that has..Hopefully they'll be along soon.
 

Antonio65

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Hi and welcome to TCS, though on such a sad occasion.

I'm so sorry you're going through such a nightmare with not one, but two cats of yours.
My question is, how fast you are pushing liquid food down the e-tube on the cat who is throwing it up? Sometimes, too a fast administration can lead to vomit.
You should push a few ml (3 ml, I guess is fine) of food and wait for a few seconds, then repeat.
Do you warm the food up a bit? Is it too hot, or still too cold?
 

LTS3

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There's some info on feeding tubes here: Feeding Tubes For Cats

Some TCS threads with tips:

 
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SpaceLamb

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Hi and welcome to TCS, though on such a sad occasion.

I'm so sorry you're going through such a nightmare with not one, but two cats of yours.
My question is, how fast you are pushing liquid food down the e-tube on the cat who is throwing it up? Sometimes, too a fast administration can lead to vomit.
You should push a few ml (3 ml, I guess is fine) of food and wait for a few seconds, then repeat.
Do you warm the food up a bit? Is it too hot, or still too cold?
Our Vet told us the whole feeding should take between three and four minutes and out boy is getting about 70mls of food per feeding so our plan for today was probably smaller, more frequent feedings that go a bit slower to try and prevent that nausea. We have been warming it up just because we make all their food in the morning and then store in the fridge.

Thank you so much for the help!
 

Antonio65

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Our Vet told us the whole feeding should take between three and four minutes and out boy is getting about 70mls of food per feeding
When my cat had the PEG tube and later on the E-tube, I never fed her so much food in a single feeding.
I overlooked this issue in your post because I would have never imagined such an amount.
I would feed my cat around 30 ml of food per feeding, 6 to 7 times a day.
I would just make sure that the daily energy requirements were met.
 
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SpaceLamb

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When my cat had the PEG tube and later on the E-tube, I never fed her so much food in a single feeding.
I overlooked this issue in your post because I would have never imagined such an amount.
I would feed my cat around 30 ml of food per feeding, 6 to 7 times a day.
I would just make sure that the daily energy requirements were met.
Hmm, I don’t know then. Our vet told us to to feed every 3 to 4 hours with 4 to 5 feedings a day so I was just going on that. Might need to stretch it out some more then.
 

Antonio65

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My average schedule was 30 ml per feeding, at 6am, 8 am, noon, 5pm, 8pm, midnight.
The food I was giving her was 1,200 kcal/kg, and I would add an energy paste to it so to get around 170 kcal over the day, which was the RER for my kitty.
 
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SpaceLamb

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My average schedule was 30 ml per feeding, at 6am, 8 am, noon, 5pm, 8pm, midnight.
The food I was giving her was 1,200 kcal/kg, and I would add an energy paste to it so to get around 170 kcal over the day, which was the RER for my kitty.
Sounds good. We’re going to try going to five feedings throughout the day and see how he does. Thank you for the help - everything is so stressful right now so glad I could get some advice.
 
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