Canker Treatment: Metronidazole 20% powder and Tube Feeding with Kaytee Exact. Am I doing this right?

[casportpony]

Tube feeding is part art, part science. You need to weigh her every day, preferably in grams. Weighing in grams makes the math easier.

You should weigh her every morning before feeding. She should be gaining weight, not losing or staying the same.

Have you posted a picture of your tube and syringe?

I think the next step is to figure out how much you can tube safely in one feeding.

 

[ebisu]

Tube feeding is part art, part science. You need to weigh her every day, preferably in grams. Weighing in grams makes the math easier.

You should weigh her every morning before feeding. She should be gaining weight, not losing or staying the same.

Have you posted a picture of your tube and syringe?

I think the next step is to figure out how much you can tube safely in one feeding.

I dont have a digital scale atm but I will get one

 

[ebisu]

Have you posted a picture of your tube and syringe?

Syringe is a 60ml and the tube is a 14 Fr catheter. Everything is from the hospital I work at so they are brand new and have been sterilized prior to use.

 

[casportpony]

Perfect! Try increasing 10 ml each feeding until you get close to 120 ml per feeding.

 

[ebisu]

Perfect! Try increasing 10 ml each feeding until you get close to 120 ml per feeding.

So far I've only been able to get an extra 5ml each feeding by pulling the syringe as far back as possible.

I was thinking of getting a larger syringe (100ml or 150ml) online as my hospital doesn't carry that large to increase feeding in one sitting but what I want to know if there is any danger or risk to disconnecting the emptied 60ml syringe from the tube still in her crop and connecting another pre-filled syringe? Because as the food travels down that means there might be some air too. Or do you suggest to take the Fr tube out, connect it to the syringe with the remaining feeding and putting it back in?

 

[casportpony]

So far I've only been able to get an extra 5ml each feeding by pulling the syringe as far back as possible.

I was thinking of getting a larger syringe (100ml or 150ml) online as my hospital doesn't carry that large to increase feeding in one sitting but what I want to know if there is any danger or risk to disconnecting the emptied 60ml syringe from the tube still in her crop and connecting another pre-filled syringe? Because as the food travels down that means there might be some air too. Or do you suggest to take the Fr tube out, connect it to the syringe with the remaining feeding and putting it back in?

Sorry I didn't explain that better. Use more than one syringe, or tube twice.

For example, If I have just one 60 ml syringe and I want to tube 80 ml, I tube 60, put the bird down, refill the syringe with 20, catch the bird, then tube 20.

 

[User690263]

@azygous also has A LOT of experience with tube feeding, she can probably help as well

 

[ebisu]

Sorry I didn't explain that better. Use more than one syringe, or tube twice.

For example, If I have just one 60 ml syringe and I want to tube 80 ml, I tube 60, put the bird down, refill the syringe with 20, catch the bird, then tube 20.

I see. Yeah I tried that the other night and she's compliant with the first time it goes down but she threw a fit when I took it out and tried to put the tube down again and give her the extra 10ml. I'm gonna try and get my hands on a larger syringe.

She didn't aspirate and hasn't even once since I started (thank god) but she was miffed.

 

[ebisu]

I have a 12 hr shift tomorrow from 7a-7p tomorrow so last time I left food/water for her to try and help herself to until I got home that night to feed her 60ml which I had to wake her up to do (her crop was empty). Now that I'm more confident in tube feeding, can I tube feed her at 4-5am before work in addition to the late night feeding? I understand this is during hours she's normally asleep and it's still dark out.

 

[azygous]

I will tell you how I tube feed. I wrap the chicken in a towel to confine wings, then I insert the tube into the esophagus. I have a half a cup or 100ml of the liquid food, and I fill my syringe from it.

The tube stays in place in the throat of the chicken while I refill the syringe several times until all the liquid has been put through the feeding tube. Then I pull out the tube and we're finished.