Limp Tounge

[Melissa]

HELP!
I have a female veiled chameleon (Cocoa) about 4 months old and her tounge goes limp!
When I put the crickets into her enclosure (especially in the morning when she just wakes up, or when it's her first feeding of the day) she will poke her toung out of her mouth while she aims at the cricket and then when she goes to 'shoot' it out it falls completely limp. Sometimes when it falls it gets stuck on a branch / leaf etc and it takes a few seconds for her to pull it back in. She then continues eating (it usually only happens once at the beggining) but lately I have noticed it happening more and more frequently. I am very concerned that it is an injury caused by eating mealworms off the top of her old enclouse (which was steel). She also used to shoot her tounge up and drink the water droplets off of the top.
I used to cup feed her about once a day but since I have read it can cause the tounge to become more lazy I have just been putting the crickets right in.
I'm very concerned can someone please help me..help Cocoa????

 

[Tygerr]

A malfunctioning tongue can sometimes be a symptom of MBD. It is also often the result of various husbandry issues, or physical trauma.

What supplements are you using to dust her food? How are you gutloading the insects you feed her?
What lighting do you have in her cage? You said the top of her cage was steel? Is that steel mesh, or solid steel? If it's solid steel, how are the lights set up?
How are you providing her with hydration, and how often?

Please describe your set-up and husbandry in more detail so that the members here can determine if there is anything that could be causing this problem.
Refer to this sticky, How to ask for help, for guidelines on how to describe your set-up.

 

[kinyonga]

If the tongue was injured, I don't know what to tell you to do except to see a vet. If its from a husbandry issue then, obviously it needs to be corrected.

The problem is that in the meantime, if the tongue hangs out and she can't retract it, she won't be able to eat without biting her tongue. If the tongue hangs out and isn't kept moist, it will go necrotic fairly quickly. This will be serious....an emergency.

If the tongue doesn't retract, she will need to go to a vet and it will likely have to be amputated.

If you go over your husbandry, we can at least make sure there is no obvious problem with that....and go from there.

 

[deerhunter]

tongue

hey melissa I highly recomend a trip to the vet and abslutely positively make sure your vet extends the tongue to check for injury, or something else going on. Hydration is very important I had a similar issue with one of my panthers when I first recieved it but I figured it was stress or dehydration,so I misted alot more and approximately 6-8days later everything o. k. I wish you luck.