RSA Flap neck cham with tongue injury and egg retaining.

H

Hardy

New Member
Hi all I'm not a cham owner but u do love them to bits... Recently I "rescued" a flapneck from a shrike had some open wounds and was quite stressed out overall... I then realised it was a female after some research and was aware of her eagerness to dig in moist soil... After she healed up nicely, I let her roam free in my garden. She's been happily living free since early December 2015.
Although I don't always see her I was constantly aware of her precense and today disaster struck... I got home to find her struggling in a tree... Her tongue caught on a branch and bleeding quite excessively where she bit down on it... After getting her and her tongue free I set her under a misting kit I use sometimes for heated afternoons to cool down my porch area... And I helped her get the tongue back in her mouth... I then put her in a temporary enclosure and darkened it up. Temp. At 30 degrees Celsius... She is currently asleep but her tongue is starting to protrude a little. I also notice she still digs in the corner of the enclosure and I'm worried that she might still have eggs... Unfortunately after contacting vets in my area I realised that they do not know much about chams as they are quite rare in RSA and quite illigal to keep. Does anyone have advice for me as I'm worried that she might not survive without proper care and medical attention.
 
Usually with tongue injuries that are severe the only course of action is to amputate them. However it depends on how severe it is with her. If she is able to keep it in her mouth for the most part she may just need to rest it. Which means hand feeding... or setting up a feeder cup since she is wild and might not let her feed you from your hand. So she doesn't have to use her tongue to grab prey. If she shows no interest in eating you may have to force feed her something, I don't know what kind of liquid diets you have on hand so you might need to make something like bug juice if you don't have any good pet stores near you that sell something like Reptaboost.
 
Thanx for replying... Yeah she's pretty feisty... doesn't like human contact... I just got off the phone with a friend who keep veiled chams and he's on his way to try help... Unfortunately he also confirmed my worry's... No vet in a 300 km radius will touch these guys as they are super illegal to keep and quite rare... I'll have to get her to Jo'burg for medical attention... Liquid diet? How do I make this? Should I keep misting her or will she be fine for now? Also how do I go about the cup feed thing? I keep crickets and superworms for my dragons and spiders will this be fine? Should I dust them with calcium? I'm quite carefully as she's wild and I don't want her to die... Previously I fed her crickets and flies straight from the garden... But its been rainy so I might not find many...
 
With cup feeding I would make a container that is relatively shallow that you can hang off the side of the enclosure with like a zip tie or something. I would pinch off the back legs of the crickets if you put them in, so they can't get out. The liquid diet, can either be pre-made as a store variety, or there is some way to make it out of bugs, hopefully someone else will chime in and tell you how to do that. I would dust the crickets with calcium if she stays in your care long term. For now she has enough calcium built up that it's ok.
 
Nope seems problematic she spit her tongue out again... Still sleeping but now her tongue is out....
No vet... My friend who keeps veild chams couldn't really help...
 
She will likely need her tongue amputated, or she will starve to death. Either that or she needs to be put down. I'm not sure if anyone else will have any other sort of advice. Hopefully there will be something you can do.
 
When her tongue is hanging out it needs to be kept moist. If she cannot keep it in her mouth she will not be able to eat without damaging the tongue or biting it or maybe even biting it off. If she can't keep it in her mouth and doesn't bite it off she will need to have it amputated.

If she bites it off she should be on antibiotics for a few days to make sure it doesn't get infected while it heals.

I don't know how much vets where you live would know about tongue amputation in chameleons....but it needs to be done properly or she will be uncomfortable with it and she also will need to be hand fed for a few days after. (re: amputation...If any tongue is left hanging out past the tip of the hyoid bone so that it's loose and can wiggle around chances are that she will keep "playing" with the position of the tongue and it becomes so frustrating for the chameleon that she could not eat and die.)
 
They can do well without a tongue once they learn to eat without it.

With her tongue hanging out I don't know how you are going to feed her without her biting it. be careful watering her too because she might aspirate it. The only way I can see you being able to feed her with her tongue hanging out into tube feed her...and I don't know if you can do that.

There's a recipe created by Susan James and Dr. Kenny Lopez for bug juice. I'll see if I can find the link for it.
 
Just an update. So ive decided to name her... Chewbakka... Her tongue is slowly healing it took a couple of days for her to keep it in... She would get it in her mouth with help but while sleeping spits it out... Got hold of a vet very very very helpful although hes in another country... We started antibiotics yesterday... Shes on a strict liquid diet... Bit hard to get her used to the syringe but once she gets a taste of the bug juice she wants more... And im also happy to announce she started laying her eggs about an hour ago... She seems quite happy and ill post a pic soon. Thanks to all who replied here you might have just saved 90 or so baby chameleon aswell as their mother.
Regards
Chewie and Hardy.

P.s
she should be ready to go back into the wild in a couple of weeks and her eggs will be incubated till they hatch. They will all be set free in the limpopo region in various wildlife sanctuaries except for two who will become the new members of my scaled family.
 
I am so glad she has been getting better ^^ I am so hopeful for you and her, plus the new little ones on the way <3 I am pulling for her and her recovery. Hopefully she will continue to improve under your excellent care and all the babies will flourish. Good luck and keep us updated ^^
 
Update...
Today Chewie started drinking by herself again. When the mist started she moved to the nozzle and started licking it immediately... This is the first time she used her tongue since the injury. It still looks swolen but the colour seems to be returning to it ( pinkish yellow vs blueish grey) I gave her a whole cricket. Close up she did shoot her tongue at it but couldnt hold on to it so she just came over and bit down on it as if it was the bug juice syringe... I think shes doing well maybe a little malnourished and dehydrated but shes eating and drinking and I think that is the most important.

Thanx again for all the help
She had a total of 52 eggs.
 
Omg YAY 8D I am so happy she's doing well and improving, I was so worried. I'm glad she was able to heal with time and some tender care. <3 You are an amazing person for taking care of her so well.
 
That's amazing! I've been following this thread expecting the worst for poor little Chewie...she might make it after all! Go, go, Chewie!
 
So glad to hear she laid the eggs and the tongue is getting better! Good job!!
Hope all the eggs hatch! What temperature are you incubating them at? Will you keep them for a bit when they hatch or just release them?
 
kinyonga said:
So glad to hear she laid the eggs and the tongue is getting better! Good job!!
Hope all the eggs hatch! What temperature are you incubating them at? Will you keep them for a bit when they hatch or just release them?
Click to expand...
Currently @ 26 degrees Celcius... Theyll take 9 to 11 months to hatch then theyll stay in an open habitat for about 8 weeks to insure they can sufficiently fend for themselves... After wich theyll be moved to various reserves, all part of free me organisation... The open habitat is in essence my backyard with lots of trees varying in size and colour I have chicken fencing spanned across the top to create a type of aviary to keep my baby tortoises safe from birds of prey. They are roughly 2 inches in diameter... At night 3 led spots attracts quite alot of insect life there are alot of caterpillar and crickets in the garden aswell as flies, moths, and other insects you'd expect in a garden.
 
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