Veterinary Clinical Medicine-I (General and Systemic)

ENTEROSTOMY FEEDING TUBE 

• Enterostomy feeding tubes are usually 5 French tubes that are placed directly into the duodenum and/or jejunum.
• An advantage of an enterostomy feeding tube is that they bypass the stomach and so can be used in animals undergoing gastric surgery or in dogs with pancreatitis. However, they must be placed surgically, and only liquid enteral diets may be used through a 5 French feeding tube.
• Placement of an enterostomy feeding tube can be done at the time of surgery; therefore, careful planning is necessary to avoid a second surgery.
• An enterostomy feeding tube should be placed in the descending duodenum or jejunum.
• The tube should travel in the wall of the small intestine for a few centimeters before it enters the lumen of the small intestine. T
• he distal end of the tube should be 20-30 cm from the site of entry into the small intestine.
• The feeding end of the tube should exit the lateral abdominal wall. Usually, liquid diets are administered through enterostomy feeding tubes.
• It is difficult to pulverize medications into a fine enough powder to prevent them from occluding enterostomy tubes; therefore, administer only liquid medications.