Yes I have heard of it as a temporary measure for an animal near death however no way should it be done on an animal for 18 months.
The more this is done the more the animal is being stressed the less likely he is to eat on his own.
There are different case scenario here.
#1/ The animal was never properly started and than subjected to additional stress cause by husbandry issues leading to long term refusal.
#2/ Failure to thrive
In either cases the animal should have been assisted or force-fed until he naturally started eating on it's own it can take time but it usually works, in the rare cases it doesn't and the animal fails to thrive the best decision is to have the animal put down.
The tube feeding is not accomplishing anything with that animal it's just merely maintaining it alive but a real poor quality of life in my opinion.
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