Tongue injury

[nl.mau]

Hello I really need help on how to feed my chameleon. My chameleon recently had a accident where she shot her tongue out to my friends arm and got stuck to his arm hairs. We would usually hand feed her so I assume she thought we were going to feed her. So by reaction , my friend pulled his arm back and she pulled back too while her tongue was still on. We managed to get her tongue off his arm but she had pulled back so far that her tongue was completely hanging out and bleeding. We took her out her enclosure and put her in a box with wet paper towels so her tongue wouldn’t stick to anything. So 2 days passed by and her tongue had completely dried out and somehow it was completely detached from her mouth and on the floor. We set her back in her cage for her to feel more comfortable and less stressed. We’ve tried feeding her , but there is no sign of interest of her wanting to eat , it’s been about 5 days now since she haven’t eaten , I would hate for her to pass but I really don’t know what else I can do. She is also beginning to close one of her eyes and keeping the other one open, which is something I’ve never seen her do , I hope someone can help

 

[jannb]

Is she drinking water? I’d recommend some ReptaBoost.

 

[MissSkittles]

Sorry this happened to your little beauty. She’ll be needing to be hand fed for some time and relearn how to eat without a tongue…do the mouth grab. As mentioned above, you can get some ReptaBoost from any pet store to give her until she fully heals. The instructions are inside. See pic below - Aim for the very back of the throat (blue). The airway is in the front of the mouth (red). You may need some help from someone as it can be a challenge to both hold her and give her the liquid. I do strongly advise a vet visit just to make sure everything inside is healing and ok.

 

[kinyonga]

Definitely a vet visit with a good chameleon vet would be a good idea. She may need to be put on antibiotics for a while and the vet can see what needs to be done with the area where the tongue detached.

Chameleons can learn to eat without the tongue…but it takes them some time and it goes faster if you can help them learn.