Tips on successful feeding tube dressing changes

Hey Everyone
My 4yr old cat Miso is five days post op for a feeding tube insertion to treat hepatic lipidosis and triaditis. I am having difficulty doing dressing changes. She just gets so upset when my spouse and I start taking the dressing down. It is a real struggle to hold her still while we clean the stoma and make a new wrap inhibiting us from make a suitable dressing. We try to not waste any time and we have our supplies ready. But Miso doesn't have any patience. I feel bad holding her down cause it seems to only make things worse. But the dressing needs to get on. We have both suffered battle wounds from the last change. Anyone have any tips to help!!! I'm so discouraged. I don't want this issue to be the thing that makes her not respond well to treatment. I can take her to the vet each time for a dressing change but I've just spent $2500 for all the testing and treatment. I'm broke and have no more extra money to spend. Please help!!!!

To be honest when my kitty had a feeding tube the vet took care of the dressing changes.  If I remember right I took him back weekly for a blood draw to check his liver enzymes and the vet changed the dressing.  That also gave the vet a chance to check for signs of infection as well.  Maybe someone else here did the dressing changes themselves.

Is it an e-tube or a PEG-tube? I've done the PEG-tube thing 3 times and honestly, I've never had to change any dressing. There actually wasn't any dressing at all, just a stretchy surgical sock underneath a baby t-shirt, which was replaced a few times during the course of treatment by the vet when the kitties would go in for a check-up. Maybe explain to the vet how stressful this is for everyone and ask if there are other options or if such frequent dressing changes are really necessary at this point (also explaining your financial situation). 

Sugarcatmom said:

Is it an e-tube or a PEG-tube? I've done the PEG-tube thing 3 times and honestly, I've never had to change any dressing. There actually wasn't any dressing at all, just a stretchy surgical sock underneath a baby t-shirt, which was replaced a few times during the course of treatment by the vet when the kitties would go in for a check-up. Maybe explain to the vet how stressful this is for everyone and ask if there are other options or if such frequent dressing changes are really necessary at this point (also explaining your financial situation). 

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It is an ET tube that is in the side of her neck. My vet said to change the dressing every couple days. When I research online it says to change everyday for the first week post op. Then not as frequent after the site heals up a bit. Also, there was some milky discharge from the site the last couple times. Vet put her on clavamox to help with infection.