My kitty Smokey was just diagnosed with this disease. They are putting feeding tube in today. Any one else go thru this? Is it easy to feed thru tube. Im scared to death.
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liver disease
- Thread starter wskline
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- Jan 30, 2005
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I have. I just lost my cat to secondary liver disease. Meaning he had a chronic disease that every time it would flare up, he'd get hepatic lipidosis (or fatty liver disease). This time his liver had just had it and didn't bounce back. But his was a rare case.
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he had urinary tract infection then it lead to liver disease. Hopefully it's not to late and he makes it thru.
Do you know what kind of feeding tube? Willow had an e-tube (esophogeal). In her case, it wasn't a cure because she had FIP, which is nearly always fatal. She wasn't eating anything on her own (she wouldn't even look at food), so the feeding tube allowed me to get food into her body. While it didn't save her life, at least I knew she didn't spend her final weeks starving to death. She was very stressed out by syringe feeding, but with the tube, she could just sleep through the whole thing. After a couple of days, she would climb into the cat bed while I was getting the food ready so she was ready and waiting when I came back into the room.
When you feed through the tube, start slowly at first--the fastest I ever went was 2 ccs every 20 seconds. I was terrified of pushing the food too quickly and making her throw up so I started with more like 1 cc per minute. Eventually I learned that I could push the food a lot faster and her stomach tolerated it fine, but I built up to that. I found that listening to music and using a watch with a seconds counter helped me learn to time it right and feel more confident.
Make sure you ask the vet what to do if the tube clogs (usually they recommend using a small amount of Coca Cola). The water flushes are important both before and after, but you don't want to use too much water (empty calories)--about 5-7 ccs per flush works for most tubes but it depends on their length. If you haven't already, you may want to join the Yahoo group for assist feeding--they have tons of experience with all types of tubes and a great list of files for frequently asked questions.
When you feed through the tube, start slowly at first--the fastest I ever went was 2 ccs every 20 seconds. I was terrified of pushing the food too quickly and making her throw up so I started with more like 1 cc per minute. Eventually I learned that I could push the food a lot faster and her stomach tolerated it fine, but I built up to that. I found that listening to music and using a watch with a seconds counter helped me learn to time it right and feel more confident.
Make sure you ask the vet what to do if the tube clogs (usually they recommend using a small amount of Coca Cola). The water flushes are important both before and after, but you don't want to use too much water (empty calories)--about 5-7 ccs per flush works for most tubes but it depends on their length. If you haven't already, you may want to join the Yahoo group for assist feeding--they have tons of experience with all types of tubes and a great list of files for frequently asked questions.
