Very uncommun tongue phenomenon

Here is a picture of something that appears to be very uncommun. The owner of the chameleon, a French guy (who is NOT me), claims that his chameleon does that from time to time, since a while, but especially when the temperature is quite hot. We all know that opening their mouth to get cooler is normal, but exposing their tongue (a vital organ) is very strange, if not dangerous!!



Have you ever seen something like that? What do you guys think about it??

That's just plain strange....

My first thought would be keep that tongue moist! Other prolapses can often heal if they don't desiccate. Don't see why an exposed organ on the other end wouldn't be a similar concern.

To me his front limbs look quite rounded and bowed, could just be the angle of the pic. If they are bowed, then perhaps the lack of calicum is affecting his ability to control his tounge. I don't know, but they aren't dogs and their tongues shouldn't be just hanging out of their mouths.

"Mine's bigger!"
That's what he saying. Lol

Yes Heather, this little guy had a rough life at first. His front legs aren't at the best, but now he has been growing good (as far as i know). His back legs are almost normal and his mouth is permanently slightly open due to another unknown reason. I joined two pictures to let you judge by yourself.

However, what i am looking for new info is about the tongue, not the rest of his body which is not the purpose of my post. So if you have anything linked to the tongue issue, go ahead!

Wow! He is gorgeous! I honestly don't know, but found this link and there are others listed with it. You've probably already read this, but just in case you haven't: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/232-tongue-troubles.html.

There might be something wrong with his respiritory system causing him to keep his mouth open to intake more air.

Heather: Yes, your blog lists reasons that are related to more commun issue, but this case is different in many ways. For example, it is not linked to eating or shooting his tongue. It is also not apparently linked to retracting his tongue since he is still able to do it. This is exactly why i am looking for other reasons.

Chamtrainer: if this was the case, he wouldn't have his tongue like that. He would do like any other chameleon in this case, which is only opening his mouth. Also, if he did have any respiratory pathology, he would be dead by now or declining since he has been doing it for over 2 weeks now.

Honestly, i doubt someone will find a good answer, but i thought it would be a good idea to give it a try! Who knows!

If he is indeed able to retrack it back, I can only imagine he's using it like a lure, or fly paper to catch insects. Let the flies come to the tongue. But more likely a health issue.

SSimsswiSS said:

If he is indeed able to retrack it back, I can only imagine he's using it like a lure, or fly paper to catch insects. Let the flies come to the tongue. But more likely a health issue.

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These are possibilities, but if you are right about the lure, why don't we know anything about this behavior??

About the health issue, which is the one i think it most likely the case, what is it??

I was sure I had seen similar pics and an article on the e-zine, but couldn't turn it up. But I found a different link: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Reptiles-704/2009/8/Chameleon-tongue.htm

There are a wide range of things that can cause tongue issues, including calcium or vitamin deficiency, trauma, acclimation to lazy feeding habits, etc. In this case, I'm assuming that the chameleon is typically able to feed normally since you didn't mention anything about difficulty feeding, so I don't think it is a lazy feeding habit issue.

There are a couple ways the tongue is held onto the entoglossal process (one of the tongue bones). First, the retractor muscle can be active pulling the tongue pad toward the base of the tongue skeleton and thus hold the tongue in place when already retracted. This muscle is not typically active unless there is some other movement of the tongue or tongue skeleton going on (as during feeding, drinking, etc.). Next, when at rest, the entoglossal process is pointed slightly upward resulting in gravitational pull preventing it from falling off the tip. Finally, the mouth can be kept closed or the the tongue can be depressed into the gular pouch preventing it from falling off the entoglossal process by physically blocking its extension off the tip.

In this case, it sounds like the chameleon is failing to maintain one of those three means of keeping the tongue in the mouth. When it is hot, they often open their mouth to cool themselves off as the mouth is fairly well vascularized and the evaporative cooling helps cool them. In the first pic, it looks like he is leaned forward, which would eliminate the help of gravity to keep the tongue in the mouth. Further, the tongue could have been elevated to help the cooling process. For whatever reason, the chameleon didn't immediately activate the retractor muscle, possibly the result of trauma or calcium/vitamin deficiency. The latter is indicated by the mouth and limbs but if the spindle fibers or other sensory units of the muscle were damaged, there could be a lack of signal returning to the muscle to trigger retraction to initiate retraction.

My recommendation would be to keep him cool, make sure he has the correct lighting, calcium and vitamins and give him some time to recover.

Chris

im sorry but i won't be able to help much. but all i wanted to say is that I love the colouring! gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous! i don't think that word would be able to leave my mind! good luck!

Merci Chris,

I will pass the information to the owner and i'll try to get more information if the owner ever goes to see a vet.

I'm glad this post came up. When I got my adult melleri he was leaning down to shoot a feeder and all of a sudden his tongue just fell out of his mouth and was dangling there for a second or two. Thankfully, he retracted it and it's only happened once.

draetish said:

I'm glad this post came up. When I got my adult melleri he was leaning down to shoot a feeder and all of a sudden his tongue just fell out of his mouth and was dangling there for a second or two. Thankfully, he retracted it and it's only happened once.

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Like SsssSsSsimsswissSsssSsSsssS's baby chameleon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etjvcwYH9JE&feature=related !

morpheon said:

Merci Chris,

I will pass the information to the owner and i'll try to get more information if the owner ever goes to see a vet.

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When I looked at the pic of his deformed lower jaw I wondered if he simply has trouble keeping his tongue retracted inside his mouth (he can't close his mouth as you stated earlier). It could be that sometimes under some particular temps or state of hydration he loses muscle control of his tongue, and because his jaw and gums are deformed, it slips out and hangs.

Carlton said:

When I looked at the pic of his deformed lower jaw I wondered if he simply has trouble keeping his tongue retracted inside his mouth (he can't close his mouth as you stated earlier). It could be that sometimes under some particular temps or state of hydration he loses muscle control of his tongue, and because his jaw and gums are deformed, it slips out and hangs.

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It is a possibility that deserves to be considered.

On a side note, i have seen a second chameleon on a French forum that has the same exact jaw deformation. It is quite strange.

I'm sure the jaw deformity is from MBD...and I'm betting the tongue issue is too. MBD not only affects the bones but the muscles and other things too.