I don't often hand feed my chameleons for this very reason, but today I fed my (coveted) 6 month old male veiled baby 3 freaking crickets by hand and on the third one his tongue hit and stuck to my finger - but he didn't know, it stuck and he CHOMPED down - I could hear the crunch - and my heart just broke. The tongue then fell from my finger and became stuck to a canvas chair and he again thought it was retracting and bit down again. In a matter of seconds we went from him watching me get feeder bowls organized for my crew from his tree on my kitchen island to this horror unfolding between us. He freaked out and I could tell he was in pain and was confused. I immediately calmed him and gave him 0.02cc's of Metacam, put his tongue in sugar water (had heard that helps with hemipenes so thought 'lets go with it'), called my vet and rushed him in. My vet was not optimistic about saving the tongue - he wanted him over night so he put Dexter into an incubator (Dex was in shock and vet wanted him warm) he gently put his tongue back in, hoping the swelling would go down and the tongue would retract. He told me to go home as it would be a few hours. When I next talked to the vet, nothing had changed. The next call was that Dexter had 'spat out' his tongue and there was no 'life' left in the muscle and in fact a blood clot had developed and the only choice left was to amputate. My heart sank. They sedated him and immediately performed the surgery. My vet called me back to say the surgery was a success but he was taking him home to keep an eye on him - he was still groggy and the clinic had closed. He didn't want him alone tonite
So my vet is concerned for me as he's not certain Dexter can learn to eat and then maintain a nutritious diet for his entire life without a tongue - he really tried to paint a bleak picture so I'd now what to expect. He was doing his job I guess but I was adamant Dexter can live a full and happy life without his tongue. My vet is a great reptile vet and really knows his stuff but he has more clients who would have the pet put down, not save it and nurse it through life. I guess it was his way of softening the blow of amputation but there was no way in hell Dexter wasn't going to get through this with me by his side. I asked my vet "Do you sell carnivore care? That's what I'm going to need to get him healthy and keep him there."
I guess what I'm leading up to is...I know this isn't a rare occurrence - I know it happens. So is there any specific advice from keepers out there who have had a tongue injury in a Cham? How you managed through the first few days after surgery, any problems with drinking, what to do if I can't train him to eat or will I have to syringe feed him bug juice for life? Anything at all, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
So...all in all a super crappy day. I feel a cloud of disappointment in myself settling over me and a huge sense of having let my baby boy down - like I failed him. I am just sick about this and I keep going over and over in my head..."what made me, THIS TIME decide to hand feed?" And I just could kick myself silly....
