Red rubber feeding tube, 5 French by 22 inches - the fine gauge used for small neonates. Softer than PVC, which is why breeders prefer red rubber for newborns.
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A feeding tube for a neonate that has stopped sucking. 5 French gauge, 22 inches long, red rubber.
WHAT "5fr" MEANS French gauge is how tube diameter is measured - the higher the number, the thicker the tube. 5fr is fine, which is what suits a newborn puppy, a toy-breed puppy, or a kitten. Larger neonates and older puppies take a larger gauge. Using a tube too thick for the animal is uncomfortable and unnecessary; too thin and feeding takes forever.
It is softer and more flexible than firm PVC, which is why most breeders prefer it for newborns. A softer tube is more forgiving of a puppy that moves.
The puppy that has stopped sucking. A bottle only works while the puppy can still do the work of pulling. Once it has stopped, a bottle either does nothing or drowns it.
The puppy too weak to hold on. Common in the smallest of a big litter and in anything that has gone cold.
Cleft palate puppies, where your vet is managing the case. A puppy that cannot form suction cannot feed normally.
Getting fluids or medication into a neonate on veterinary instruction.
Placed wrong, the tube goes into the lungs instead of the stomach and the puppy drowns in what you put down it. If you have not been shown how, be shown - by your veterinarian, or by a breeder who does it - before the night you need it. We are not going to print a how-to here, because a page is not a pair of hands.
Will my syringe fit? Yes. The flared end of a Covidien-pattern feeding tube is made to push onto a regular luer syringe - the ordinary tapered nozzle you already have in the box. You do not need a special feeder or an adapter. That one fact saves more phone calls than anything else on this page.
Luer Slip or Luer Lock? Slip is the plain push-on taper; Lock is threaded so the attachment screws on. The tube's flared end pushes onto either, and most breeders use slip for tube feeding because it comes apart quickly when you want it apart.
Which French size? French gauge is the tube's outside diameter - higher number, thicker tube. The common range for neonates runs 3.5 Fr for the very smallest through 5 Fr and 8 Fr, with larger gauges from 10 Fr up for bigger puppies, kittens and other young stock. Match the tube to the animal: too thick is uncomfortable and unnecessary, too thin makes a feed take forever.
Which syringe size goes with it? Small barrels of 3 cc to 12 cc for small newborns, where you want precise and slow control. Larger barrels around 35 cc pair with the bigger tubes and bigger puppies where a feed needs real volume. Breeders running a litter usually keep both.
Length. The industry-standard sterile tube is 16 inches. Ours run longer - 22 inches on the 5 Fr and 43 inches on the 12 Fr - which gives more tube to hold outside the animal while you work, and matters on longer- bodied stock like calves and foals.
Sterile and individually wrapped. One per animal, per feed, so nothing passes from a sick animal to a well one down a row.
Tube feeding is a skill, and the tube bypasses the animal's own ability to stop swallowing when it has had enough. Two things go wrong, and both kill: the tube placed into the airway instead of the stomach, and too much formula delivered at once.
We are not printing a method or a volume on a product page. That is not caution for its own sake - it is that a page cannot watch you do it, cannot see the puppy, and cannot weigh it. Be shown by your veterinarian, or by a breeder who does it, before the night you need it.
Two things worth knowing regardless: a cold puppy cannot digest, so warmth comes before feeding, and every puppy is weighed before every feed because their weight changes daily and the volume follows the weight.
An oral syringe to attach, milk replacer, warmth, and a scale - a puppy that is not gaining is telling you the feeding is not working.
Your attending veterinarian. They can see the animal, they know its history, and they can weigh it. Published figures are a starting point written for everybody; your vet's answer is written for the animal in front of you. Ask before you need it rather than during.
| Directions | Use as directed on the product label and packaging. Questions about using this product with your animals? Call A to Z Vet Supply at 1-800-979-2869, or ask your veterinarian. |
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