Chameleon Not using tongue (long post)

[RaeLindsay]

My boyfriend and I have a female veiled chameleon (her name is Camille). We believe she is 6-7 months old (the pet store weren't 100% sure how old she was when we bought her). She was eating and very healthy for the first month and half we had her. Then she stopped eating. Took her to the vet, did stool sample, turned out she had pin worms, so we medicated her for that but she still wasn't eating. Took her in again did some blood work and x-rays, find out she is full of eggs. She was induced twice to try and get her to lay but it didn't work so she had surgery to remove them and her reproductive tract. At this point it is 4 weeks without eating although we were force feeding her ground up bugs and greens with vitamins to help keep her strength up. After surgery she started eating again on her own but she isn't using her tongue at all, we have to hand feed her. My boyfriend took her to the vet today and she said she cant see the tongue at all. Yet when shes eating you can see it in her throat moving when shes swallowing. Can't really find any other information on the internet so hoping someone can shed some light on what might be going on


Picture was taken right before she stopped eating

 

[jajeanpierre]

The vet said she can't see her tongue? Did she rip it out? Didn't the vet check? It isn't that hard to see a chameleon tongue. I'm puzzled the vet wouldn't make the effort to look at the tongue/throat structure when you had an appointment for that very reason.

It is possible she ripped out her tongue leaving just the bone in her throat which you would think of as the tongue when seeing her swallow.

Here is a picture of a chameleon that had just ripped out her tongue. If you look closely, you can see the bone and a tiny bit of flesh surrounding the bone (in the tongue) at the floor of her mouth. You have to look really closely. The second picture is another wild caught trying to kill me. You can see the tongue deep at the back of her throat. (Ignore the facial injuries--they are healed.)

Find out if she in fact has a tongue (likely). There are many reasons she can't use her tongue ranging from low levels of calcium in the bloodstream to injury. I suspect she is deficient of calcium based on her reproductive history so hope your vet has prescribed adequate calcium for her. Sometimes they get the use of their tongue back over time, other times not.

 

[Dragon1516]

The vet said she can't see her tongue? Did she rip it out? Didn't the vet check? It isn't that hard to see a chameleon tongue. I'm puzzled the vet wouldn't make the effort to look at the tongue/throat structure when you had an appointment for that very reason.

It is possible she ripped out her tongue leaving just the bone in her throat which you would think of as the tongue when seeing her swallow.

Here is a picture of a chameleon that had just ripped out her tongue. If you look closely, you can see the bone and a tiny bit of flesh surrounding the bone (in the tongue) at the floor of her mouth. You have to look really closely. The second picture is another wild caught trying to kill me. You can see the tongue deep at the back of her throat. (Ignore the facial injuries--they are healed.)

Find out if she in fact has a tongue (likely). There are many reasons she can't use her tongue ranging from low levels of calcium in the bloodstream to injury. I suspect she is deficient of calcium based on her reproductive history so hope your vet has prescribed adequate calcium for her. Sometimes they get the use of their tongue back over time, other times not.

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I gotta ask how does a chameleons get its tongue ripped out?

 

[kinyonga]

It gets caught on something when shot out and ripped out when the chameleon can't free it.

 

[Dragon1516]

It gets caught on something when shot out and ripped out when the chameleon can't free it.

Well thats just a horrible thought. lol

 

[kinyonga]

Yup. Even worse in a way if it over-stretches the tongue but doesn't rip it off.
Then it has to be amputated.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I gotta ask how does a chameleons get its tongue ripped out?

It gets tangled in something. Or hits something that holds on really tightly and the chameleon panics. The Calumma malthe I showed a picture of wrapped her tongue around a branch. She did it less than 36 hours after being unboxed after import so she hadn't eaten or hydrated. And she was gravid.... She died ultimately from egg binding. If I had known she was close to laying I would have just euthanized her when she did the tongue but she didn't show that she was even gravid. She even fooled @jpowell86 who was at my house when it happened.

 

[bobbydigital]

My first chameleon was a female panther and she had an issue where she would spit her tongue out and have trouble retracting it and she would choke and bite down on it. I had to pry her mouth open with a credit card and push it back in. Eventually her tongue was losing blood circulation (it turned black) and she bit it off. Before she bit it off I took her to two vets who had never seen or heard of the issue and refused to amputate. I had to mush up crickets and worms with carnivore care (I think that's what it was) and syringe feed her. She died 3 weeks later. She had a severe respiratory infection as well but the meds for that didn't help her. I did tons of research and the only thing I found remotely close to the issue she had was on olimpia's blog (http://www.muchadoaboutchameleons.com/2012/07/strange-case-of-charlottes-tongue.html?m=1) but my case was much more severe. She also said it's something one in every thousands of chams develops. I know it's prob not much help but it's something relatable. I hope you can get this issue figured out.

 

[Dragon1516]

It gets tangled in something. Or hits something that holds on really tightly and the chameleon panics. The Calumma malthe I showed a picture of wrapped her tongue around a branch. She did it less than 36 hours after being unboxed after import so she hadn't eaten or hydrated. And she was gravid.... She died ultimately from egg binding. If I had known she was close to laying I would have just euthanized her when she did the tongue but she didn't show that she was even gravid. She even fooled @jpowell86 who was at my house when it happened.

Thats horrible I'm sorry to hear that. And if she fooled you guys she would have fooled anyone. I can't even imagine seeing that I would freak.