What is Assisted Feeding?

by Mewsette

Okay, what IS assisted feeding, anyway? You may have heard of "force-feeding", but that sure doesn't sound good to a cat, does it? Assisted feeding is something like that, but with the emphasis on "assisted", not "forced". It still doesn't sound like something we'd like much. What is it? Something that can save our life.

Many medical conditions and illnesses will cause a cat to stop eating. In fact. most anything can because, if we don't feel well, the first thing to go is our appetites. Most of the time this won't last long. Short periods of not eating could be our body's way of dealing with an upset stomach. But if it goes on for longer than two days, it's a serious matter, and we will need strong encouragement to get something in our stomachs.

Other options may be successful, such as offering us especially yummy "treat" foods like baby food meat (pure meat and broth, containing no onion or onion powder) in a dish or from a spoon. This often helps to jump-start our appetites again. But if even that is refused, and it doesn't help, fasting is over. We MUST get food in our stomachs, sick or not. We can't get well or keep our strength up if we're starving. That's when your human needs to know about assisted feeding, the last option you go to after other efforts to get a sick cat to eat have failed. Even though it is a last resort, it is not a drastic one. Nothing drastic about it! And this is what can save us from starving or wasting away.

Assisted feeding is done with a small food syringe. Your vet will have these, but might offer one that is okay for dogs but entirely too big for you. A cat needs a syringe that holds 5 ml (or cc) of food, or one teaspoon, at the most. A better size is 3 ml (or cc), the type of syringe used for shots but without the needle. Your vet should have at least one of these small sizes, or they can be purchased at pharmacies or online cat health supply companies.

What goes in it? Cat food can be pureed in a blender, or a small electric "hand chopper or grinder" is better, as long as it is high quality food or your prescription food. Spring water or low salt chicken broth can be added to make it the right consistency for getting up into a syringe. It shouldn't plop out like a lump, but it shouldn't run in a puddle, either. Much easier is to mix pure baby meat, baby food vegetables and/or instant baby rice cereal for a puree. Not too much cereal; we do not thrive on that, and NEVER anything containing onion or onion powder, which are known to cause serious anemia in cats. If you are fed baby food more than a day or so, your human needs to add taurine, an essential nutrient for us that is missing in all cooked food. The food should be slightly warmer than room temperature for feeding.

The best, most comfortable way to feed the cat is to have her sitting right next to you facing the same direction. Put your left arm around to hold her and use the food syringe with your right, or vise versa. Put a small towel over her feet in front of her, but don't drape it on her like a bib unless she really doesn't mind. Speak to her in a soothing, calm voice, and explain what you are doing and why. Fill the syringe from the little cup of whatever you made for her, and insert it gently into the SIDE of her mouth over her gums. It's best to squirt only half of it at a time. Give her time to mouth the food around and swallow before you give the next squirt. It's very important to feed her from the side this way. Never squirt food into her mouth straight on from the front, because she could inhale it and get it into her lungs.

Usually, when the cat has had enough, she'll turn her face away from the syinge. But since she might have been doing that every time if she isn't used to assisted feeding, try to keep on until she's consumed at least a tablespoon, or two if she's normally a big eater. This needs to be done at least twice a day. Sometimes it is 4 times day during a crisis, and twice a day later for management if she still isn't eating much. It's a judgement call, partly yours and partly hers.

Be sure to praise her for doing so well, even if she didn't or you didn't, and take the towel away to show her she's all done. You can use a very small comb, like a flea comb, to comb out droppings in her fur if she wasn't very neat; she'll appreciate it. Sometimes we're neat, sometimes we don't want to be. Sometimes we will swallow nicely, sometimes we dribble on purpose, sometimes we will spit. Yes, we can spit. But we can get used to this much easier than you may think!

Humans, don't be afraid to try assisted feeding if your cat will not eat. And kitties, don't be afraid of it, because there is nothing to fear, and it could help you so much!