Step-by-Step Tube Feeding Guide - Pictures - Under construction

[lizo97]

Something that I have thought of.... I see so many people making their birds vomit, which IMO, is INCREDIBLY dangerous and will more than likely give the bird pneumonia. If people would insert a tube and instead of the holding the tube up above the chickens head... let the tube go below the crop the gastric contents should drain on their own through the tube without the worry of the bird aspirating.

Another thing we do in the human world is check for "residuals" about every two hours if it's a newly inserted gastric tube to check the patient's tolerance of tube feeds. This would be a wise thing to do after doing an initial tube feeding with poultry.... to check and make sure the initial volume has went down before pumping more fluid in because, once again, this could cause the bird to aspirate and get pneumonia. Simply insert your syringe and pull back to check residuals. If you pull back and hardly get anything.. that's awesome, it means the fluid is going down. If you aspirate a ton of volume, don't do your next TF, but make sure and return the contents! Hold it for a few hours and then recheck. We always allow bolus tube feedings to run in by gravity meaning don't use the plunger and PUSH the volume in. Doing it in this manner is less hard on the GI tract and also lessons the risk of potential aspiration. But I have also never done this on a chicken... my first time will be tonight after I get home from work LOL! When I do bolus TF's on a person I get a large volume syringe, attach it to my tube, and simply pour a small amount in initially of whatever I am trying to get down. Sometimes the fluid will bubble from gas being released and after that the fluid goes down easily. If the patient is coughing or sneezing I would use my plunger as a stopper and temporarily cover my syringe so my feed doesn't go all over me and everything around me LOL!

I tried this, but could never seem to suction much and most of it was liquid!