How To Tube Feed Your Puppy Part 2

In the last article, we discussed the first 3 steps for feeding your puppy through a feeding tube. Listed below are the 4 remaining steps on how to properly administer this process.

Step 4: Now, with the pup's mouth still open, you can gently stick the end of the feeding tube into his mouth following the top of his tongue. As carefully as possible start to guide it to the back of his throat. Continue to carefully push the feeding tube directly in until the pre-determined mark reaches the top of his mouth.

It should go in smoothly, but if the puppy starts to cough or struggle, or both, it means it went down the trachea, another way to tell is the tube will generally only go in about half-way. Once you successfully get the tube inserted to the length of the mark, you should slide your thumb and pointer finger down to the tube, and hold it as firmly as possible in the pup's mouth. Then, move the other remaining fingers up around his head being sure to have a steady grip on the puppy.

Step 5: As you hold the tube firmly in place, you need to check to make sure the tube went into the windpipe; you can do this by sticking the open end of your feeding tube into a cup of water. You are doing this to check to see if bubbles are bubbling up into the water. This could also be due to the fact that the puppy may have some gas bubbles in its stomach. If bubbles do appear, the tube should be taken out and cleared of all water, until all bubbles are removed, once this is done, you can try again until there are no bubbles producing in the cup of water.

Step 6: As soon as you get the tube safely inserted into the puppy's stomach, continue to maintain a firm grip on the pup's mouth with your thumb and forefinger. Then, you need to hold the tube so it doesn't slip out of the puppy's mouth, carefully pick up the syringe you filled up earlier in step 1 and stick it into the end of the feeding tube that is sticking out of the pup's mouth.

Step 7: Once you have the syringe firmly placed into the feeding tube, gently apply a little pressure with your thumb to the plunger on the syringe, and deliver the milk into the puppy's stomach. Continue to administer the milk until all the milk is gone. Then, slightly draw back on the plunger and slip the tube out gently, still connected to the syringe.

This concludes this article on how to properly feed your puppy with a feeding tube; I hope it has been helpful.