Syringe Feeding a Cat
Having just gone through several weeks of syringe feeding Gabby, I thought I would share some thoughts and advice on syringe feeding a cat. This usually arises when a cat stops eating usually because of illness and you have to get food into the cat. Many people, including vet techs, hate doing it, but I find it a time to bond with the cat. And actually, many of the cats, like Isabel, who were syringe fed for weeks to months, often come and want to be hand-fed when stressed. (I actually had to fight her off when I was syringe-feeding Gabby as Isabel wanted the syringe and my lap so badly!)
So here are some suggestions.
1. Time. Slow is better. I will take anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes to get the food into the cat. I only put a small amount in (maybe 1-2 ml) and I let the cat swallow and relax before the next mouthful. Because this takes time and because often the cat can't handle larger amounts, I break up the day's food into 3 or 4 meals.
2. Location. I syringe feed the cat in my lap or between my legs while sitting on the floor. I have the cat surrounded with my legs and arms, with my torso draped over the cat. I believe this makes the cat feel safer. Rarely do I have to 'towel' a cat to force feed it -- even with new arrivals.
3. Tools. I use a feeding syringe from FourPaws. It holds a nice amount and the tips can be cut off so that the food comes out quickly. I have tried regular syringes and I didn't like it. If the syringe is re-used, the plunger sticks due to the rubber o-ring. The tip is usually too small unless one uses the 50 ml size and then it's too big to easily handle. I usually preload 2 syringes, and then have the bowl with a spoon to refill them if needed.
Also have have moist paper towels, to clean up drips and splatters. Many cats do appreciate you cleaning off around their mouths.
4. Food. I know Science Diet A/D is considered a great force feeding food, but (a) I don't keep it on hand and (b) some of my cats hate it, so I just use my normal raw mixture thinned with water or other liquid. The food needs to be of the right consistency -- not runny, not thick, but something like cold gravy.
Now in the vet world, there is this 'argument' that you should not syringe feed the same food that you normally feed because the cat will develop food aversions. Bullshit! I have seen vet techs force-feed a cat with a syringe and watching them squirt 10 ml of canned food into the cat who started to choke on it... I have no doubts as to why that cat would be averse to that food, and it has nothing really to do with the food but how it was delivered. I have syringe fed many rescue cats and many of my own because of illness, and not one has become averse to my raw.
As for amounts, that is tricky. To keep a cat from going into hepatic lipidosis, they need a minimum of 3 tablespoons of food... not a lot to prevent it. With the raw, I shoot for a minimum of 60 -100 ml of food depending on the cat size. Often for the first 1-2 days, I only give 45 ml so not to overload the digestive tract if the cat has not been eating. (I know a vet once advised me to give 1.5 3.5 oz cans of A/D to a 3 lb cat...I looked at the vet and laughed -- an 8 lb adult would not be fed that much, let alone a very sick 3 lb cat.)
I usually add a bunch of things to the raw I syringe feed. The big things are probiotics (specifically PB8) and digestive enzymes -- both will help the digestive tract function better. Then depending on why the cat is being syringe fed, I may add milk thistle (liver issues), echinacea (infections), ginseng (general tonic), gingko (kidneys), etc...
5. Position of head. I try to keep the head level and squirt small amounts of the food ( like 1 ml) in the middle of the upper palate. This works better than what owners are told to do -- squirt it between cheek and teeth. I know vets and vet techs are afraid owners will choke the cat with the food, but if it's the proper consistency (not a liquid) and if it's small amounts, I've never had any problem.
One last thing, the alternative to syringe-feeding is having a tube placed and then feed via the tube. I've done that, and found it much harder to deal with -- tube kept getting clogged, easy to overfeed, annoying to cat, etc. Also, from an alternative medicine point of view, it is much better that food goes in the mouth so that the digestive system is properly triggered, than to suddenly bombard the cat's digestive tract with food in the middle of the digestive process.
