Feeding Tube for my 13 yo cat

[Vicki Shockley]

I’m writing about my experience with a feeding tube for my sweet cat. I had no idea what to expect but it was the only option. So here I am feeding tube blind! Written directions and a poor sick kitty to practice on! I have had everything go wrong! I have squirted the whole tube unknowingly out! I have squirted the food/gruel all over Sugar! Given her food at the wrong time! Forgotten steps and still she is sitting there trusting me and purring! I could learn a lot from my cat! Patience, trust and total devotion I have to laugh at myself or I would be a puddle of tears! It’s been 7 days and I’m doing pretty well and so is Sugar. I don’t ever want to say I’m too confident because the next thing I know…a misstep! I don’t know what is wrong with Sugar yet but I feel that her prognosis is good. I feel it in my heart! If you are just starting, call your Vet with questions and keep trying. Your baby is counting on you! If I can get through this I guarantee you can! Just laugh, sing to your cat and enjoy the purrs and the love!

 

[fionasmom]

Welcome to The Cat Site! Why did Sugar receive a feeding tube? You said that you did not have an actual diagnosis, but she must have stopped eating? In these situations I always advise what you did....keep calling the vet for help and instructions. There are numerous instructions online and lots of videos. I can't vouch for the quality of them, but some are probably professionally done.

Tube feeding help

This is a fairly recent TCS thread with a lot of information in it.

 

[denice]

I had a cat on a feeding tube a number of years ago, he lived another eight years after that. He had hepatic lipidosis from undiagnosed IBD. The vet kept him for several days until he was doing well with the feeding tube. They then showed me how to do it and I fed him in the exam room with the vet watching. It is an experience and seems like a really dramatic desperate thing, but cats can and do get through it and go on with a healthy life. It depends on why the tube was needed.