Newbie to Tube Feeding my Kitty with Hepatic Lipidosis

My Maddie cat stopped eating during a time when hubby had flu, then I had flu.  She is 12 years old.  Must have been upsetting to her.  A 5 day stay at hospital resulted in E tube and 8, yes EIGHT medications.  We were terrified of the first feeding and trying to organize the meds and feeding was a nightmare!!!  We are retired and used to have a life.  After 4 days of food/meds, kitty was visibly going DOWNHILL after the meds dosage.  I hated the hospital people who were very insensitive.  I took her to a fabulous holistic vet that Saturday who spent almost two hours with her and us on a Saturday afternoon!  He took her off all meds except Vitamin K1.  He added Silymarin (Milk thistle) and chelidonium.  She is better than on the darn 8 meds, but slow going.

The hospital NEVER said anything about cleaning or checking the place on her neck where the tube comes out!  Readiing these threads, I see that mentioned several times.  So, now I'm worried about that.  The hospital told me to purree the food.  They never mentioned liquify it.  We noticed today (Day 9 of using same feeding syringe) that it is getting really stopped up and hard to administer.  We did add organic pumpkin, yogurt and honey to the food.  I'm wondering if the small amounts of these new healthy foods is making the syringe get stuck, or if we just need a NEW SYRINGE.  THOUGHTS?  

I"M TERRIFIED at the thought of getting her feeding tube plugged up.  Geez!!!

Maddie is also on Cerenia for nausea.  But, she is still nauseous.  We feed her very slowly.  The hospital had us work up from 10 ML's of food, 4 x daily to 24 ML's 4 times daily.  She is currently 9.5-10 lbs.  Many of the other posts are feeding their cats MUCH MORE than we are!  I know its supposed to be based upon their weight, but I'm concerned with how much other people have been instructed to feed as compared to how little we are feeding.  Her tummy feels bloated.   She does not PEE/POOP but every couple days.  Is this normal?

She moans and groans about all the time and feels just horrible.  I try and take comfort in the tiny little things I see - like her eyes are open more today than yesterday.  Or, yea!  She went to the potty!  Or wow!  She moved a couple feet!

We are on Day 9 of the tube feeding and she still feels awful.  When can we expect any improvement?  It kills me to think of how she is suffering, with all the moaning and groaning.....

Thanks for any advice on my long email.  I'm glad to hear we are not the only ones with pureed cat food all over the windows, ceilings, drawers.  The kitchen is a disaster, had to drop the cleaning lady because she can't come into the ICU ward now.  I was a walking zombie and finally made the sad choice to shut kitty in bathroom at night by herself just so I could get some sleep!!!

www.yahoogroups/felineassistedfeeding/ I'm sure thats not the complete address, but they were a HUGE help during the 4 months that my Mikey had her e tube....
And yes she did regain her appetite...
Unfortunately, the cancer in her neck won in th end.
The key is being able to maintain the tube insertion site and get a good recipe that gets her 250 to 280 cals a day, split into 3 or 4 feedings.
Find that yahoo group, feline assisted feeding... They will get you thru....

Lisa

It will take a while to get over fatty liver but it is possible to recover.  My kitty as well as many here  have recovered.  I never did anything with the site where the tube was inserted.  I took him back to the vet frequently and she checked it as well as replaced the bandage around his neck.  

I was using Hills H/D.  The vet had me mixing it half and half with water so the mixture was almost as thin as water.  I was feeding 60 ml four times a day which would be 30 ml of the food four times a day because it was mixed half and half with water.  I was also giving a supplement that contains milk thistle and samE.  Patches was also on a steroid and Flagyl but I think that was because IBD had caused the issue with eating.

You can replace the syringe.  If I remember right the vet gave me several at the beginning.

Hmmm... When we had to tube feed our cat, we would plunge in the food (slowly, steadily), and then wash it down with water (a little bit at a time).  The tube never got plugged up or "icky". 

When our cat started getting his energy back, he would fuss at the tube (even with a soft collar), so the vet showed me how to change his wrappings.  It wasn't too tough, and the area never really got overly crusty or anything like that.

I'm glad you've found a holistic vet that can help you through this.  I know it's a bit scary and overwhelming at first, but take it one day at a time.  Breathe, have patience with yourselves as well as with kitty.

We have been tube feeding Cindy since January.  She got an infection and was on antibiotics, then got infected again (or maybe still) and the tube came out.  They put the tube in the other side.

As for cleaning, the people at the hospital told us to clean it once a day, put an antiseptic ointment on it, and cover it with gauze or the cosmetic rounds you get in the drug store.  She has a collar like this covering it  http://www.kittykollar.com/Product.php

Actually, we have several collars so we can periodically wash them. 

We are feeding her 40 ml of food 4 x a day.  Originally, we were instructed to feed her 60 ml of food 3 x a day, but she was throwing up, so we scaled it back and spread it out.  We are feeding her a mix of 2 cans of Iams low ash and Clinicare.  The Clinicare high calorie.  I mix it up with a hand held blender, then run it through a strainer, also add water to make it thinner to go through the tube. 

She's on 4 medicines - steroid, anti nausea (not the same your using, she didn't do very good on that one), mirtazapine appetite stimulate, and Pepcid AC.  A vet we saw recently suggested probiotics, so I mix some of that in her afternoon feeding.

This morning she weighted 5 lb 5 oz.  She started this weighing 4 lb something or other, so she is gaining.  It goes up and down.  We can't get her to eat enough on her own to sustain let alone gain.

We were terrified at first too and every time she would lick her lips we would stop, thinking she was going to throw up.  We have the luer lock syringes and they don't last forever.  If it starts getting hard to push, you pretty much have to get a new one.  Make sure you wash them out really good between feedings.  We give her about 3 ml at a time, wait a minute, then 3 more, etc.  They told us feed over 15 - 20 minutes so that works out fine.  Then follow with 10 ml of water.

I've gone through all the thoughts, are we doing the right thing, sometimes she's just there in a little ball and I think she must not feel good. But then she'll jump up on her chair downstairs and look out the window, or cuddle with our other cat, so it's encouraging to see that.  She's better on the mirtazapine days, and we have taken to giving her 1/8 of a pill for 2 days, then off a day.  Her original dose was 1/4 of pill every 3 days.  It's also an antidepressant.

If you have any questions, we have gotten to be kind of pros at this, so please feel free to ask in this thread or PM me directly.  And good luck with your kitty!

(And I know exactly what you mean that you used to have a life ... )

The syringes can definitely get "sticky" and need to be replaced frequently. And I agree that the tube needs to be flushed with a little water after each meal.  I don't recall ever having to actually do anything with the insertion site though.  

Hills A/D is a great food to use in feeding tubes as it's very smooth already, doesn't need much watering down in order to go down the tube, is full of vitamins and extra nutrients, etc.  It's a recovery food for cats who have been thru a traumatic illness, but you have to get it either from a Vet, or at certain Petsmarts or even via the internet but you must have a prescription for it. 

As far as not peeing and pooping daily, she should definitely be peeing daily, if you are giving her wet food daily, and she should be pooping probably every other day, at least a little bit.  If she is now feeling bloated, then she may be constipated, although with the pumpkin you are adding, this seems strange.  Is she getting ANY water?  What food ARE you giving her....exactly?    And I'm wondering about her "moaning and groaning".  This is absolutely not normal cat behavior.  Cats withdraw if they are not feeling well, they are not vocal.  I think she needs to be seen again, especially if you say she is still feeling horrible.  It may be an underlying condition that caused this all along, and NOT the stress of you and your husband having the flu