Tongue damaged?

J

jojothefirst

New Member
I noticed today that my female veiled has what seems to be a damaged tongue. She is hungry and keeps shooting at food but the end of her rather that shoots out straight it flops around from the side then doesn't stick to the food.
It seems like its not returned to the mouth properly. It is also swollen and red.
She's managed to grab a few bugs but then has dropped them but did manage to eventually get 1 dubia but that seemed to stick to the roof of her mouth before she was able to swallow it.

I'm thinking she needs to get to a vet but since its her tongue I don't know if they are going to be able to look at it without stressing her out enormously.

Here is a video (sorry about the background noise



Any help appreciated
 
A vet visit is a must, it does look damaged, my Picasso burned his tongue on Christmas day and now only has a very small part of it left...he has to be forced fed because he can't catch any prey with his tongue.....please see a vet soon.
 
And one other quick comment - please get rid of the sand at the bottom of your cage. The best substrate for a chameleon is no substrate!! And yes, a vet visit is in order as the tongue is damaged. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the replies..... There's no sand at the bottom of the viv! Maybe the wooden bottom plus the poor camera quality makes it seem like it has?

Anybody have any idea what it could be?
Im going to try get her to a vet monday and try feed her and assess her sunday. What would the vet do as to look at it there going to have to force her mouth open or knock her out which is obviously going to be incredibly stressful.
 
I would definately get her looked at by a herp vet. Between 22 and 28 seconds in, it kind of looks like its rolling out of her mouth like it is folded somehow. Definately keep us in the loop on her status.
 
gavriel said:
I would definately get her looked at by a herp vet. Between 22 and 28 seconds in, it kind of looks like its rolling out of her mouth like it is folded somehow. Definately keep us in the loop on her status.
Click to expand...

It is doing exactly that! And it's not always flopping out from the same side either. It's like she is able to recoil it most of the way but the end of the tongue for some reason will not go back as it should so is folded in her mouth.
 
lovepicasso said:
A vet visit is a must, it does look damaged, my Picasso burned his tongue on Christmas day and now only has a very small part of it left...he has to be forced fed because he can't catch any prey with his tongue.....please see a vet soon.
Click to expand...

Can I ask what happened to the tongue initially after the burn before it was amputated? Did it look any thing like this? You have got me wondering if this is a possibility.
 
It's hard to saw what caused it, you have no idea if she didn't shoot at a sharp little branch and now it's swollen and painful, or if she managed to shoot at something awkwardly and injured a muscle in the tongue. Chameleons do really strange things with their tongues sometimes and the cause is difficult to determine; I once had a female that swallowed her whole tongue.

A vet should be able to treat her with some anti-inflammatory medicine probably and anything else she might need. She won't like it but the exam will probably be over quickly, and it'll be worth it.

Good luck!
 
I would definately get her to a vet to get checked out. My Guy was eating normal one day and and then two days later he was extremely dehydrated with sunken eyes and was very lethargic. He stopped eating for about five days. The only thing I did different was I fed him a spider the day before. I did research and found a lot people give their guys spiders. I made sure this was not any dangerous or real venomous spider than gave it to him. He stopped eating the next day and dehydration quickly set in! I was terrified and really thought I was gonna lose him. I started showering him regularly, increased misting/humidity alot. I was so afraid so I started to basically force fluids by dropping a drop into his mouth one at a time. Water along with him eating on some strawberries cause he just bites into those finally brought him around to eating on his own and drinking again in about a week. When he finally started to eat again it looked as though his tongue was slow and weak like maybe he was going easy on it. Now he is eating and drinking on his own. The only thing I could think of is that the spider may have bitten his tongue and he wasn't using it and this was the cause of dehydration and him not eating. So I guess the point I'm trying to make is that you don't want to wait until its to late to get her to a vet because she may not be drinking at all and will go downhill very quickly. I made a mistake and feel that I almost lost my buddy because I didn't go right to the vet. I'm talking it was literally a day after I noticed he wasn't eating and he then became extremely dehydrated. A vet for sure.
 
jojothefirst said:
Can I ask what happened to the tongue initially after the burn before it was amputated? Did it look any thing like this? You have got me wondering if this is a possibility.
Click to expand...

He did not have it amputated, it would die a small piece at a time and dry up and fall off....it did look like that on the end after the burn, but he could not roll it back up into his mouth.
 
Been to vets.

Vets thinks it could be a calcium issue as she is has recently laid infertile eggs and because she quite old now (4 1/2) but hasn't ruled out truma injury. (I believe this is the problem)
Vet said there's lots of infection so has given her antibiotics to be given sub cut, liquid calcium with D3 and critical care formula.
Also advised to raise temps which I've done.
I've bought some waxworms as well and she ate at least 3 so far but with difficulty.

Appreciate the help so far and the concern.
 
glad to hear you took her to the vet and she was given some meds! i hope they help her out and her accuracy is back to normal soon :) i wouldnt have guessed her age watching that video!! she's looking really good :)
please keep us updated on how she's doing!!
 
Thought I would post a update.
Here is a video taken yesterday. It is nowhere near fixed but there is definitely a improvement and she can now hit the food where as before she would try but miss.
Appoligise for the noise again, we have a very busy house lol

 
Last edited:
Thanks for posting the update.
I suspect that too many people think that a cham has to have terribly bent limbs in order for it to be MBD.
Your post will help others.
 
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