For Tyler Greenberg, and Ayla:
 
Talk to your vet, and see about getting some stomach feeding tubes.
These are available in various diameters, and you may be able to
find a gauge large enough to get even the "mush" through. They are
a very soft silicone tubing with the tip closed in a rounded point,
and a small hole or two in the side wall very near the tip. The
other end flares out to 1/4" diameter or so, over 1/2" of length.
You can either slip the end over a syringe tip, or, as I used to do
when supplementing puppies, drop the tube point-first through the
inside of a turkey baster. The flare would wedge into the tip of
the baster, and we could fill the barrel with the Nutrical or
whatever. You then lubricate the tube with a little vegetable oil
or even water, and sliiide it down the animal's throat. It sounds
*awful*, but it really gets easy, and is not very traumatic for
the patient. The only part to be careful of is to be sure the tube
goes down the esophagus, NOT the trachea. I was taught to pull
back a bit on the syringe to look for a little stomach contents.
If you're in the trachea or bronchii, you'll only get air...
Again, the patients really get used to the "mistreatment" pretty
quickly, and you *know* she needs the food!
 
Dave
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[Posted in FML issue 0437]