tongue injury? watched as it happened and concerned

MannyXO

Member
it was feeding time for all the reptiles and i usually finish with the chameleons eating last. my lil guy Petrie is in a Large repti breeze 18x18x36. hes almost a year and a half. i have a linear t5 5.0 for his uvb that is due soon for change, and a 50 w basking bulb. i do keep dowels for walking and some vines for variety. and some fake vines and plants. i do keep money trees and umbrella plants in all my chameleon enclosures for better humidity. my supplements are the calcium with LoD and rep-cal without d3. my usual feeders are crickets, rarely have i had availability to dubias. sometimes hornworms but mainly its all crickets. this little guy shot his tongue into one of the pots where the cricket was at and had the cricket in his mouth and a bit of soil caught in there. he started flailing as if this guy was a trex wiggling his prey. i realized i had to help and rinsed the soil from the outter area and got whatever was in his mouth out. after that he was just pissed off with me and then continued to be unbothered and chasing crickets. however he made a shot that was 80% shorter than usual. and missed then his last one was about an inch from his mouth. hes able to at least shoot it out a bit from his mouth but it doesnt go far like it did before this incident about 40 minutes ago. i read on strained tongues, sprained ones, injuries from bites and i dont know how to take it as it just happened so fast. could this be very bad or? he has a lil bulge behind his throat which i mean could be food or the tongue being irritated or swollen. i just hope this isnt permanent :c unfortunately cannot post pictures until my overnight shift at my hospital but i can show side profiles and maybe his tongue. should i hold off of feeding for a few days and let his tongue heal? this is my first injury that i can catch as im feeding.
 
so this is a risk when you free range feed. When they are cup fed or have a feeder run they are not targeting things like dirt that can get caught in their throat. They can panic and bite their tongue or over extend the tongue. IF there is an issue of a bite then the concern is infection. if over extended then it just takes time to heal.

I am not sure what species you have but an 18x18x36 for a male veiled or panther would be far too small.

If you are using repashy calcium plus LoD this should be used only 2 times a month then all other feedings would be a calcium without D3.
 
so this is a risk when you free range feed. When they are cup fed or have a feeder run they are not targeting things like dirt that can get caught in their throat. They can panic and bite their tongue or over extend the tongue. IF there is an issue of a bite then the concern is infection. if over extended then it just takes time to heal.

I am not sure what species you have but an 18x18x36 for a male veiled or panther would be far too small.

If you are using repashy calcium plus LoD this should be used only 2 times a month then all other feedings would be a calcium without D3.
i thought i responded to this, my boys tongue is back into full use i think he was sore from what happened. im actually in the process of moving all my chams outdoors since i live in SoCal im just worried they would stress and not adapt well.
 
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