Can't get chin to eat anything

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SCchin

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Same chin as Please help me figure out thread in health.

He has had 3 cc CC today, and 10 cc yesterday.

He had anesthesia, a LONG car ride, and a teeth filing. He is on metacam.

I don't want bloat/stasis, is the 3 cc this morning enough, if not, how can we get him to take the cc, he just flat won't.
 
If he is completely off feed, no, that is not enough Critical Care. If I have a chin not eating, I try to get 60-100 cc in a chin per day, depending on the chin's size and if weight is holding or dropping. It should be broken up into many small feedings throughout the day.

Have you tried mixing a little bit of canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling which has lots of sugar and spices) in the CC? I have found that to help with picky Critical Care eaters. Normally the first couple days are hard for a chin who is not accustomed to syringe-feeding but after those initial feedings, they normally learn it is food and will eat it more readily.
 
Are you using the burrito method on your chin? It's where you wrap him up in a towel and only his head is sticking out. I agree with Sumiko, you need to force feed him alot more than 3-10 cc's. Definitely try the organic canned pumpkin or if your vet sells the apple/banana flavored CC, try that as well. Tanya, a member here, sells Essentials for Life (EFL) which is also a syringe feed like CC.
This is the link - http://www.fuzzieskingdom.com/herbs/remedies/syringe-feeding.html
My one chin that needed to be hand fed at times preferred the EFL over the CC.
 
My advice may be a little worthless, as I am forcefeeding too, but the syringe makes a difference to my little guy. He wont eat off a straight syringe, but the tapered tip syringes allow me to get enough in him that he eventually gives up and swallows. You have to be careful to make absolutely sure no food/liquid gets aspirated.

I have also found that stone cold food is appreciated way less. I try for warm enough for an infant food.

I give breaks between mouthfuls and in between syringefuls. Takes way longer but before you know it, something will have been consumed.

If that fails, the tried and true method we are using for my sick chin is alternating syringes of apple banana CC and regular anise CC. He gets a taste of one, then a taste of the other.
 
Have you managed to get more food & fluids into him yet?
 
my chin also likes the Essentials for Life better. I also would make a mix of his crushed pellet, lifeline & a smidge of baby food squash or canned pumpkin. it makes it move thru the syringe a little better. and i agree, i would also warm it up a bit not cold right from the fridge. you have to add enough water to make it run thru the syringe smooth but not too watery.

my chin hated the real big syringe........he prefered the 10 ml ones. i would fill up five of them at each feeding. sometimes he would eat all and sometimes not but 10 cc's definitely isnt enough. i tried to get between 80 - 160 into him.........the higher end at the beginning after teeth were filed

i usually would admin the meds first, sometimes dipping the tip into a liquid lifeline mix or baby gas drops (simethicone) to entice him. once i got the tip behind his tooth, i would gently press the syring dispensing small amounts of food and allowing him to swallow.
the burrito method helped me a great deal. eventually Richie would just sit on my lap and allow me to feed him.

sometimes you just have to keep trying different things to get him to eat
 
None yet..... we were absolutely exhausted, tried until 2 am. My daughter tried this morning. I just called the vet. I can take him to our local vet and get them to get some in him. He normally loves CC and syringe fed fine at the last filing, except he never took more than 20 cc per day. He may be quite car sick from the almost six hours in the car, it was windy and it wasn't a smooth ride. Also a lot of filing on the bottom teeth, and a now freed tongue.
 
Eating at 12:30!!!! CC everywhere, all over him and daughter but tongue has been discovered and he ate a decent amount.
 
They get better as it goes along. Furby would only take up to 20 a day at first then after a few days he was eating about 80 or 90 cc a day off a spoon, no less

but you really gotta keep at it. they put up a fight
 
that is good news. maybe with him it may be better to do a lot of mini feedings. so instead of 50 cc's at 3 feedings, maybe do 25 over 6 times. good luck.
 
Vet said 1/2 tsp. 4x a day while he is feeling rough, but he took somewhere between 1 and 1-1/2 tsp. in one feeding about 3-1/2 hrs. ago. Making it runnier did help. He is sleeping in his favorite spot again, and isn't all hunched over. Both good signs.

For others having a hard time with hand feeding, our chin LOVES the Apple/Banana CC.
 
He needs a lot more than a teaspoon. That's probably not more than 3 cc's and he needs upwards of 60 ccs or more a day, depending on how watery it is, in order to recover from the weight loss, etc.
 
The 2 tsp. per day was the amount given to me for a minimum to keep him alive and prevent bloat. I was given a time limit to be that low (5 days). That is because he wasn't eating anything at first. He is already eating more than that. I had no intention of limiting it. We have never done 60 ccs because usually by a week, he is back to pellets and hay and he doesn't eat 60 ccs when he is hurting.

Last night he darted to his perch and squeezed his nose through the bars of his cage with an excited look on his face. I fed him again. So he definitely is getting an appetite and wants to eat.

How often do you feed during the day when they are sleeping? Do you wake them up... I'm not sure he'll want to eat when his sleep is interrupted!
 
SCchin said:
How often do you feed during the day when they are sleeping? Do you wake them up... I'm not sure he'll want to eat when his sleep is interrupted!
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If I am not feeding to overcome bloat or get their systems moving, I tend to feed twice a day. In my experience the aggregate amount that you can get them to eat is bigger if they are only feed a couple of times rather than every few hours. With lots of feedings, I find that they don't actually get hungry between feedings so tend to eat less each time. For example, when I was syringe feeding Tucker (he refused to eat on his own due to dental issues) if I fed him twice a day he would eat 36 - 48 ccs of CC at each meal for a total of 72 - 96 ccs a day. If I fed him more than twice I he would only eat about 50 ccs total. Again, and I can't emphasize this enough. Only cut down to a few feedings if their GI system is moving on it's own and there are no other underlying issues. I also found that it was less disruptive to have multiple syringes loaded with food so I don't have to interrupt the eating process by refilling syringes. If feeding was interrupted or Tucker got distracted he would stop eating for that meal. I would load 4 - 12 cc syringes and have them ready to go one after the other. Any left overs were given to the rest of the chins.
 
menagerie said:
If I am not feeding to overcome bloat or get their systems moving, I tend to feed twice a day. In my experience the aggregate amount that you can get them to eat is bigger if they are only feed a couple of times rather than every few hours. With lots of feedings, I find that they don't actually get hungry between feedings so tend to eat less each time. For example, when I was syringe feeding Tucker (he refused to eat on his own due to dental issues) if I fed him twice a day he would eat 36 - 48 ccs of CC at each meal for a total of 72 - 96 ccs a day. If I fed him more than twice I he would only eat about 50 ccs total. Again, and I can't emphasize this enough. Only cut down to a few feedings if their GI system is moving on it's own and there are no other underlying issues. I also found that it was less disruptive to have multiple syringes loaded with food so I don't have to interrupt the eating process by refilling syringes. If feeding was interrupted or Tucker got distracted he would stop eating for that meal. I would load 4 - 12 cc syringes and have them ready to go one after the other. Any left overs were given to the rest of the chins.
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I think you are right. Regular feedings today were 6 cc, then two hours later, 3 cc, then 1-2 cc. So we waited seven hours. I only have one syringe that holds 35 cc. He has never eaten more than 15 cc at a time. We are attempting right now to get about 25 cc into him, wish us luck... He doesn't have bloat or GI issues, so we will try to get a lot into him before bed, then let him go through the night, and catch him tomorrow morning before he goes to sleep. Right now, my 17 y/o daughter and 21 y/o son are trying to coax him into eating, my son just told the chin, "hey, when you are dying you don't want to eat, come on, eat."

Also, this morning he ate all 6 cc I made him, he was starving, then I had to make more and reload the syringe, and yep, he didn't want anymore. That is why I really loaded the syringe this time. (My luck, he won't want it and I'll have to throw it out).

BTW how long can the syringe with CC in it stay out? He won't eat any CC cold (yuck) and the reason I don't try for a lot is that I don't want to throw out what he doesn't eat.

OK, they got 15 cc down him, he is falling asleep in my son's arms. Its a record. There is CC all over all three of them. :dance3:
 
He ate pellets last night while we were sleeping. NO powder!! He was nibbling on hay before I went to bed, and I offered a softer, smaller rose hip. He ate most of it. Then I offered a pellet, he ate most of it. Then another pellet.

Stay tuned!
 
SCchin said:
BTW how long can the syringe with CC in it stay out? He won't eat any CC cold (yuck) and the reason I don't try for a lot is that I don't want to throw out what he doesn't eat.
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Not long. The problem is the mixture starts to separate in the syringe and the water goes to the top while the solids sink down and you end up having a thick mixture in the end of feeding and it can be hard to push through the syringe and shoot out when it does.

I think maybe I heard you can keep it in a container for 12 or 24 hours in the fridge and that way you can stir it and heat it up slightly (be careful how you heat it up) so it goes in the syringe easier. I'm not sure on the storage as I didn't have much leftover when I briefly handfed my chin so I just threw it out too.
 
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