Ok i have a jaws of death bite down killer no experience with a bash it off stuff.
I'm not laughing at the injured tongue—only at the "jaws of death bite down killer" part.
The op also stated "somewhat dehydrated" how would this be if theres no husbandry issues? Hypocalcemia can be due to renal failure as well as lack of calcium & or imbalance of phosphorus or D3 toxicity
Also, when one of my chameleons has this problem my vet normally gives an antinflamatory such as medicam or meloxicam.
The fact the chameleon is using a clubbing the feeder to death method (im not familiar with this) not an indication that the tongue is weakened ie a symptom.
I thought the natural take down of prey is to hit it with tongue with such a force as to stun it long enough to retract it back to the super sharp teeth for that killer blow its not as if they use them teeth for much else
Wow! So much diversity & high drama!
Wow! So much diversity & high drama!
zefrank1 or Gingero (or someone) should maybe make a video showing & describing all the different hunter-killer-devourer methods employed by chameleons.
I seem to have one of the boring "normal"s....
Zot!...Yoink!...Munch...Munch...Munch...GULP!
Wow, that looks huge. Does it pass the "as long as it fits between their eyes" test?Here is the killer blow she does sometimes keep hold in mouth untill all the nerves have stopped twitching
Unless its a worm i have never seen her not make a perfect head shot aswell always as if she is only after the compound eyes
Yeah she has no problem they are longer than between eyes but width is ok and i remove barbed back legs.
Omg!! This is awesome and terrifying at the same time. Haha! Love the pic you posted of your cham eating one!
When I took him to the second vet on Monday (a week ago) she was very thorough. The only thing she saw was the trauma at the base of the right side of the tongue. After the swelling in his neck started to go down, and he started to breath normally (mouth closed), it look like he had something stuck in his throat. When we were kids we'd pull the skin on our neck out and say "mommy, I swallowed my toothbrush". that's what it looked like, but it's just about back to normal now.
The vet that saw him last Monday called me on Friday to check on him. I asked her to clarify for me what she explained at the appt. She said she saw trauma at the base of the tongue with swelling and edema. She said it was very possible that it was a bite from the hornworm. She said that it was too early to say whether or not he would get the use of his tongue back, since he was healing on "chameleon time"
the vet that I took him to on Monday said that it was ill-advised to continue him on the antibiotics that were given by the emergency vet on Saturday for 2 reasons. first, there was no sign of infection or any open wound that would become infected. second, she said it would add undo stress and cause him additional pain fighting to medicate him, as well as the possibility of causing him to further injure his tongue.
the vet that said not to give the antibiotics gave him 7 days of anti-inflammatory/pain medicine to be given to him via a feeder, so I did this using a superworm daily. I didn't let him shoot his tongue out further than he had to.
Neither vet said he had any signs of health issues what-so-ever and both reviewed his husbandry and said it was spot-on. The emergency vet (who prescribed the antibiotic) didn't even see the trauma to the tongue.
I didn't question the "somewhat dehydrated" issue the emergency vet stated she saw. He had been traumatized in mid- January by the horrible Monsoon mister I had in his cage (it blasted him in the face and he nearly fell backward off the branch). When I saw that, I immediately replaced it with the Climist system, but he still stares at the nozzle when he has to go near it and turns away from the mist when it comes on. I've just recently notice him sitting beneath the mist, rinsing his eyes. My 2 previous chams loved the mist, so I'm hoping he's on the way to getting over his fear. I do have a dripper for him as well, and I watch his urates
the second vet, that said not to give the antibiotic, did prescribe meloxicam for the pain and edema, and it seems to have done the trick!
When I took him to the second vet on Monday (a week ago) she was very thorough. The only thing she saw was the trauma at the base of the right side of the tongue. After the swelling in his neck started to go down, and he started to breath normally (mouth closed), it look like he had something stuck in his throat. When we were kids we'd pull the skin on our neck out and say "mommy, I swallowed my toothbrush". that's what it looked like, but it's just about back to normal now.
The vet that saw him last Monday called me on Friday to check on him. I asked her to clarify for me what she explained at the appt. She said she saw trauma at the base of the tongue with swelling and edema. She said it was very possible that it was a bite from the hornworm. She said that it was too early to say whether or not he would get the use of his tongue back, since he was healing on "chameleon time"
the vet that I took him to on Monday said that it was ill-advised to continue him on the antibiotics that were given by the emergency vet on Saturday for 2 reasons. first, there was no sign of infection or any open wound that would become infected. second, she said it would add undo stress and cause him additional pain fighting to medicate him, as well as the possibility of causing him to further injure his tongue.
the vet that said not to give the antibiotics gave him 7 days of anti-inflammatory/pain medicine to be given to him via a feeder, so I did this using a superworm daily. I didn't let him shoot his tongue out further than he had to.
Neither vet said he had any signs of health issues what-so-ever and both reviewed his husbandry and said it was spot-on. The emergency vet (who prescribed the antibiotic) didn't even see the trauma to the tongue.
I do my best to lightly dust his feeders. If any of them accidently get to heavily coated, I toss them back, or let them play in the water for a while before he gets them (since they're gutloaded the day before
I didn't question the "somewhat dehydrated" issue the emergency vet stated she saw. He had been traumatized in mid- January by the horrible Monsoon mister I had in his cage (it blasted him in the face and he nearly fell backward off the branch). When I saw that, I immediately replaced it with the Climist system, but he still stares at the nozzle when he has to go near it and turns away from the mist when it comes on. I've just recently notice him sitting beneath the mist, rinsing his eyes. My 2 previous chams loved the mist, so I'm hoping he's on the way to getting over his fear. I do have a dripper for him as well, and I watch his urates
the second vet, that said not to give the antibiotic, did prescribe meloxicam for the pain and edema, and it seems to have done the trick!
I also called to make an appt with Dr Tracy Anderson, but she's not at that clinic anymore. I thought you'd like to have her new info to update your records. She is now at Countryside Animal Hospital, 2740 Curlew Rd, Clearwater 727-785-1211. She was booked out 1 month and not taking new patients. The good news is though, he's started using his tongue again so I didn't need to take him anywhere else after all
sorry it took so long to respond to all the replies, but thank you again!!
It's been a long week, but I wanted to thank you all for your input about my little Snogzilla.
After he had his last day of the meloxicam via super worm, he smacked a wax worm out of my hand from about 6 inches away! I don't know who was more surprised, me or him! Today he did the same to get a couple of crickets from his shooting gallery, but I used the tongs to feed him the rest.
So I don't know if I'll ever feed him hornworms again. If I do, I'll probably murder them first
He is very trusting of me when I feed him. I can also hold the cricket by it's back end (it pees on me, but whatever) and he'll eat it from my fingers, even an inch or so away from his mouth. He cares more about his food than he does me being that close to him. If I didn't have a feeder for him, that wouldn't be happening !
