Chameleon emergency!

After getting my ambilobe panther male from chameleonsonly.com in mid. january of this year, i had many expectations.my 5 month old cham. couldnt have flourished more!

my male wasbig bold and beutiful. He ha always eaten and drank everything. He has never had any health prob. this was the chameleon that i always took extra time to take of, and watch. In the past 6 months he has flourished in my devoted care. HE is my most prized posetion.

He recently shed, so i thought it would be a good idea to take him outside to give a nice misting and some sun. Little did i know that this would turn in to a huge emergency.

As i was taking my ambilobe outside, i was admiring his new and improved coloration after the recent shed. His colors were turning out to be extraordinary.This is when it all went wrong!

Little did i know that when i was admireing his colors he was hunting what he thought was food.Little did he know that it was part of m shirt.o as you can imagine, he shot out his tongue to catch it.since it was just my shirt his tongue got stuck, as he was trying to pull it off, the pressure was to much.His tongue ripped.

As you can imagine i was hiterical, but i called my mom to take me to the emergency vetrinairian.When we got thier, we were imediatley seen(we also brought the tongue for the doc. to look at).He said my poor chameleons tongue was comletley ripped out!as you can imagine, by this time i was devestated, even worse my oor chameleon had to suffer.

The doc. had a nurse mix. up some batril for me to oraly inject.My poor chameleon will from here on out have to be hand fed!I am glad to report though that he has been handling this very well!!!!!

Even though he has to be hand fed, he will be able for the most part to function as a normal chameleon would!I will do everything in my power to make sure he is the beautiful and healthy chameleon he is meant to be!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He will always be my Manga-Loko!!!!!!!
 
I am very sorry to hear about this. That must have been very traumatic to happen in front of you like that. Did he bite it off? This has never happened to me, but I have read about chameleons losing their tongue. Very unfortunate. Anything special about your shirt? Was he shooting at a button or something? Manually watering and feeding him will require a lot of dedication.

Keep us updated on his progress.
 
No, he didn't bite his tongue. I dont know what attracted him. I will try to keep you guys updated as much as possible, but i will be tough with out a comp.
 
Im so sorry, you must be devastated. You have a uniqe chance though, to do something special and save this chameleon's life. Best of luck to you and your guy.
 
The vet was perscribing baytril as a preventative, or is there sign of an infection? In my experience, preventative antibiotics are usually not a good idea.
 
Sorry to hear about your chameleon's tongue.

Luckily, aside from the obvious change in manner of eating, a chameleon without its tongue can live a full normal life.

Are you sure all of it is gone? If part of it was ripped off, the rest would likely curl back up onto the hyoid bone and not be visible when you just looked into the chameleon's mouth.

I have, however, seen cases (where the tongue was not completely gone) leave the chameleon uncomfortable...so if your chameleon shows any discomfort by extending the hyoid bone and acting like its gagging, you may have to have the situation checked out again. These cases have occurred when the tongue was not completely gone or when the tongue was amputated and too long a "flap" of the tongue was left such that it overhung the end of the hyoid bone.

I'm glad that the vet put your chameleon on baytril....when the tongue is ripped off like that, it gives bacteria access to the chameleon's system and it can result in infection.

Hope your chameleon will be one of the "lucky" ones that can handle the new way of feeding and not have any discomfort with whatever is left.
 
kinyonga said:
Sorry to hear about your chameleon's tongue.

Luckily, aside from the obvious change in manner of eating, a chameleon without its tongue can live a full normal life.

Are you sure all of it is gone? If part of it was ripped off, the rest would likely curl back up onto the hyoid bone and not be visible when you just looked into the chameleon's mouth.

I have, however, seen cases (where the tongue was not completely gone) leave the chameleon uncomfortable...so if your chameleon shows any discomfort by extending the hyoid bone and acting like its gagging, you may have to have the situation checked out again. These cases have occurred when the tongue was not completely gone or when the tongue was amputated and too long a "flap" of the tongue was left such that it overhung the end of the hyoid bone.

I'm glad that the vet put your chameleon on baytril....when the tongue is ripped off like that, it gives bacteria access to the chameleon's system and it can result in infection.

Hope your chameleon will be one of the "lucky" ones that can handle the new way of feeding and not have any discomfort with whatever is left.
You may be on to something here, he has been extending this hyoid bone. I will get this checked, thanks a bunch
 
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