Tongue troubles

CaseyinKC

CaseyinKC

New Member
Hey all,
I work at a pet store and inherited a veiled male from a customer that has him 8 months and just decided they didn't really feel like taking care of him anymore. This guy has had a lot of neglect and improper care. I've had him a month and took him to the vet. He had some forms of MBD and a lot of calcium deficiency. He has had 6 rounds of calcium injections as well as oral medicine twice daily for the past month.
He has really changed since we have gotten him (for the better) he has been extremely active, getting better at climbing, changing colors and patterns, been alert and moves his eyes constantly.
His biggest concern has been his declining weight..
Have tried wax worms to fatten him but he does not eat them on his own and has to be force fed which is stressful for both of us. He has also been eating carnivore care by Oxbow through a syringe orally.. which is also difficult. With his new alertness we have gotten him a to go carrier and put a few crickets in there so he has easy access without having to chase them in his cage and this is what I have noticed..
He gets ready to shook his tongue and it comes out slightly. He then seems to change his mind and retracts it. This repeats unless he is able to stick it to a close passing cricket. My concern is that he isn't actually able to shoot his tongue. We have a recheck in a month with the vet but I will call sooner if need be.
Anyone experience this/have tips/tricks/etc?
Thanks!
 
Decadancin said:
This could be due to a vitamin A deficiency. Are you dusting his feeders with anything? Also, it is important to gutload the feeders. Here is a link to the Veiled caresheets in case you have not seen them yet...

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/

Welcome to the forums! :)
Click to expand...
Decadancin said:
This could be due to a vitamin A deficiency. Are you dusting his feeders with anything? Also, it is important to gutload the feeders. Here is a link to the Veiled caresheets in case you have not seen them yet...

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/

Welcome to the forums! :)
Click to expand...
Does Vitamin A effect the tongue??? I thought just the eyes, no???
 
Decadancin said:
Sorry, should have been more clear...

Vision issues causing to miss prey and then lead to bruising of tongue and possible difficulty aiming, etc. Calcium could definitely also be an issue thus my question about dusting and gutload.
Click to expand...
My dude is right. Its intuitive, but I never realized it till my vet told me. Most tongue issues are from an injury, but most missing issues are due to eye problems which could be injuries, lead to injuries, or more commonly caused by the dreaded Vitamin A deficiency. Regardless its important to get both checked out.
 
It's not an issue of missing...
He is able to lock on to prey and follow.
He just doesn't shoot tongue out he waits for them to come close and then sticks his tongue to it.
He can see very well and has been checked like I said- weekly.
But this is his first go at crickets since I've had him because we have been feeding other things to get him fattened up but now that he has stength again it's time for him to hunt.
Also he has been getting a lot of calcium like I said- injections weekly, oral medicine twice daily, and dusting on food which was to repair MBD damadge
 
Mbd causes a lot of muscle problems, he may be unable to shoot his tongue properly at the moment because he is lacking in calcium. I had a 4 months old female chameleon who presented to me with vitamin a deficiency and also had a slight vitamins d and calcium deficiency. She took four months to get better before I could remove her. I now have a female Jackson who I refuse to remove because of how bad she is and will be. She was kept in horrible conditions for at least one year of her life and developed severe metabolic bone disease to he point where she will always have extreme bows in her legs and never looks normal. However after about 8 months of good care she is now acting healthy and normal. Why are you getting him weekly injections? I only ever got two injections for both of my chameleons. Liquid calcium should be plenty to get him back on the road to recovery.

I also wouldn't risk stopping giving him the carnivore care on a regular basis until you are at least two weeks in and his tongue shows far more improvement.
 
Andee said:
Mbd causes a lot of muscle problems, he may be unable to shoot his tongue properly at the moment because he is lacking in calcium. I had a 4 months old female chameleon who presented to me with vitamin a deficiency and also had a slight vitamins d and calcium deficiency. She took four months to get better before I could remove her. I now have a female Jackson who I refuse to remove because of how bad she is and will be. She was kept in horrible conditions for at least one year of her life and developed severe metabolic bone disease to he point where she will always have extreme bows in her legs and never looks normal. However after about 8 months of good care she is now acting healthy and normal. Why are you getting him weekly injections? I only ever got two injections for both of my chameleons. Liquid calcium should be plenty to get him back on the road to recovery.

I also wouldn't risk stopping giving him the carnivore care on a regular basis until you are at least two weeks in and his tongue shows far more improvement.
Click to expand...

The injections were the plan my vet had set out- we just had our final one so now he is on oral supplements only. He has shown big improvement with the shots and supplements.
But I guess you're probably getting at something. With 8 months of damage he probably just needs to get back into the swing of using his tongue again! The family I got him from basically said they didn't feel like buying crickets all the time so stopped giving him any and switched to mealworm... which he didn't eat... and they basically starved him.
Carnivore care is given every time we do not have successful cricket feedings so I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and check with my vet to make certain there is no serious damage. Thanks!
 
CaseyinKC said:
The injections were the plan my vet had set out- we just had our final one so now he is on oral supplements only. He has shown big improvement with the shots and supplements.
But I guess you're probably getting at something. With 8 months of damage he probably just needs to get back into the swing of using his tongue again! The family I got him from basically said they didn't feel like buying crickets all the time so stopped giving him any and switched to mealworm... which he didn't eat... and they basically starved him.
Carnivore care is given every time we do not have successful cricket feedings so I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and check with my vet to make certain there is no serious damage. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Good luck with this cham. You're doing a great job :)
 
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