Tounge ripped off

chamel1

chamel1

New Member
I was feeding my cham tonight and I had on gloves and my chams tounge got stuck to the glove and his tounge ripped off.. I read another post and it said the cham can live without his tounge.. He still has part of his tounge it is not all the way down to the bone. When he sticks it out and i dont know if it is all the way out but it reaches the end of his mouth.. What I am wondering is can he still eat and what about drinking water how will he drink water with out his tounge.. Other people say they can adapt like other lizards that dont have a long tounge but if it does not come out any farther will he still be able to drink? Anyone who has had this happen before what do i do to help him? I dont know if i need to put him out of his missery or do i see if he can adapt I dont want him to suffer... Any adivse on this horrible situation will be greatly apprieciated..
 
How did this happen? I once offered a silkworm through the 1/4 inch hardware cloth on the top of my female Jackson's cage. She zapped it and it was too fat to pull through the bars. She pulled her whole body up to the top by her tongue muscles, grabbed onto the bars, and ripped the silkworm in half.
 
In my somewhat limited experience with tongues that have not been completely "removed"...it can annoy the chameleon. I think its uncomfortable and won't sit well in the mouth. At any rate, I recommend to take it to a vet. It will likely need to be on antibiotics.

It may well adapt...but its an individual thing.
Good luck!
 
My cham is scared of me now. :( When i open his cage he moves to the back which is understandable but we put a feeder cup in his cage with roaches in it and has been eating them so he has adapted to eating without his tounge. We also had some crickets in there also and he will try and just grab them with his jaws. I have not seen him try to drink water yet but i keep him well misted and I am ordering a mistking today so they should help with keeping him hydrated. I also put a watering dish in there i know they usually wont drink from them but i thought i would give it a shot maybe he will adapt to that also. He does not see stressed so I hope he is not in pain any more. I dont have a trusted vet in my area. I took one of my other chams to a herp vet and he stuck a needle in the chams eye and my breeder about flipped when i told her that. So I have to say i will no longer trust that vet. I do have some antibiolics from a prev cham that was really ill. I can use that on this guy to stop any infections from starting. Thanks for the posts
 
wow man, his tongue ripped off... i think you really should have been to a vet by now, but i hope all is okay. he should most likely be on antibiotics and just giving him half a scrip from another incident may not be the best idea. usually you need to run the full course of antibiotics to be effective.

anyway, may i ask for our general knowledge what kind of glove you were wearing and how hard did he try to retract his tongue?

poor guy. i hope it works out.
 
chamel1 said:
My cham is scared of me now. :( When i open his cage he moves to the back which is understandable but we put a feeder cup in his cage with roaches in it and has been eating them so he has adapted to eating without his tounge. We also had some crickets in there also and he will try and just grab them with his jaws. I have not seen him try to drink water yet but i keep him well misted and I am ordering a mistking today so they should help with keeping him hydrated. I also put a watering dish in there i know they usually wont drink from them but i thought i would give it a shot maybe he will adapt to that also. He does not see stressed so I hope he is not in pain any more. I dont have a trusted vet in my area. I took one of my other chams to a herp vet and he stuck a needle in the chams eye and my breeder about flipped when i told her that. So I have to say i will no longer trust that vet. I do have some antibiolics from a prev cham that was really ill. I can use that on this guy to stop any infections from starting. Thanks for the posts
Click to expand...

If I were you I would try to find some members around you and see who they use for a vet because your boy really needs it. Anyway, the watering dish will just cause bacteria growth in the enclosure, and he will most likely not see this as a water source anyway. If you do not already have it, I would recommend Zoo Med's Little Dripper. It provides a constant water supply in on place, but is still moving water and will not harbor bacteria. :)
Good Luck!
 
The water bowl isn't a bad idea. However, it still needs tobe moving to be seen as water, so what I would do it set up a bowl or tupperware (or whatever) somewhere in the branches, and have a jug of water or something sitting on the cage that will drip down into the bowl. This will keep the water moving and he will be more attracted to it. I did it with my Jackson's when I first got him and the first thing he did when in the cage was run and dunk his mouth in the water. This works well for chameleons that won't drink in front of you when you're giving them a shower with a spray bottle or something. The mistking will be a great addition too.

You'd have to clean it every day to keep bacteria away, but it's not a big deal.

I'm sorry that both of you had to go through that! It's a horrible experience, I can imagine, and I really hope that everything works out and he can live a long and happy life.
 
I personally wont do the bowl cause my cham used to deficate in it but if you do use a bowl be sure to change every so often

mist king should definately help
 
Omg

that is horrible. i hope everything works out as I would hate for the cham to suffer. I saw one of ours shoot for a cricket once and it hit the top screen of the cage and part stuck and the rest kept going. It scared me at first but he still hunts and has great aim and got the cricket.. lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Rango_TheManEater
Dehydrated? Help!
Replies
7
Views
782
ehdee6
ehdee6
C
Chameleon Lifting Head When Sleeping
Replies
3
Views
599
MzLaurie
MzLaurie
MzLaurie
A wise older vet gave me insight
2
Replies
21
Views
873
kinyonga
K
MzLaurie
Hemi injury from sperm plug?
Replies
4
Views
547
Beman
Beman
MzLaurie
Hemipene issue
Replies
3
Views
312
Lucas00-
Lucas00-
Back
Top Bottom