young panther has a little problem and its stopping him from eating enough

[Adashek123]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - 5 month old male panther chameleon, owned for a month
Handling - whenever he crawls on my hand
Feeding - crickets, hornworms, silkworms. about 10 crickets or 5 large worms a day and cricket crack, bug burger, veggies and fruits
Supplements - Regular calcium every feeding and repashys once a week, herpivite multivitamin twice a month and I use d3 calcium like once a month
Watering - I see him drinking off the leaves every day
Fecal Description - never tested for parasites but captive bread. normal fecals with brown turd and white urate
History - bought from crazyeyeschams, sire is scotty

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 4 foot reptibreeze
Lighting - 12 hours on/off. 60 watt heat bulb and linear reptisun 5.0 brand new bulb
Temperature - around 75 ambient, 90 basking, never bellow 60 at night
Humidity - over 50 percent always, mist live plants
Plants - pothos, umbrella
Placement - top of cage is 6 feet off ground. low traffic, by low light window.
Location - Florida
Current problem: since about a week ago, his tongue was normal, shooting like 10 inches. out of no where, a week ago he stopped using it correctly. he can only shoot it out two inches now... he still licks water off the leaves and doesn't look swollen.. but what should i do? I talked to my vet but she doesn't have any suggestions as of now, and advised not to get an appoitment if he is eating correctly and acting correctly.. she told me theres no medication she can give me so for now, just watch over him? I just hope nothing happens to his tongue any suggestions or help much appreciated. Thank you!
btw, he is hungry. he just cant get the crickets. its really hard for him to so ive been feeding him hornies and silkies

 

[Iluvheidi]

My panther only uses his tounge when a branch wont reach the feeder. other than that he walks up to it and from about two inches shoots his tongue. when the feeder is way up in the corner he will use his tongue to full lenghts. my cham is perfectly happy and healthy according to my vet. he is just lazy when it comes to using his tongue.

 

[Adashek123]

thats good. i have one that has a lazy tongue too, but this guy in particular that i am posting about, definitely has a problem. he tries to shoot far when he sees crickets but he cant. he can only do it up close and sometimes it can't even stick onto the cricket because their weak shots. I'm suspecting that its injury of the tongue, but I don't know how it happened. one day he had a nice, long tongue, next hour or so he wasn't shooting it properly. I know its not a deficiency though because it would of been gradual. this happened suddenly. I can't see anything abnormal in his mouth either... i don't want to forcely open it though for a deeper look because hes young... only like 11 inches long

 

[Adashek123]

basically, I am just really worried and don't know what to do. I don't want him to loose his tongue. I will update but does anyone else have any suggestions or ideas? thanks so much.

 

[Jordyt]

Different vet

Hi I am not an expert by any means, but that seems like odd advice from the vet. Maybe try for a second opinion. I would think the vet would want to look at him.

 

[carol5208]

Because it happened suddenly like you said, it is more than likely an injury. He could have shot at prey and hit a branch or something and it might have stuck to it. I would try and get him to open his mouth and look inside and make sure you do not see anything out of the ordinary...swelling, bleeding, discoloration, etc. If slowly overtime he began to use it less and less, I would say it was some type of health issue and not an injury. Hopefully, if he did overextend it or something, it will heal on its own.

 

[Adashek123]

well she offered to look at him but she said that if I saw nothing in his mouth while he opened it, then she wouldn't either because hes so young and she cant do anything inside his mouth. I took him out one day and its not possible to open his mouth unless its forcefully opened.. sometimes after he chews, he opens his mouths a little and i don't see anything bad but if this does not stop after a few more days im taking him to the vet.. thanks for the advice. hopefully it didn't get stuck to anything..

 

[Iluvheidi]

this is the only way I was tought how to get my chams to open up with out force. cradle the back of his neck with your thumb and finger. he will gap just becuase he doesnt want to be eaten. doesnt hurt them or cause harm. my vet tought me so im not to sure if I have the right to eplain to someone else. but if you wanna give that a try have a look inside when he does that. I did this while i had to syringe feed steve.

 

[pssh]

Try using a soft rubber spatula to open his mouth. I gently, but firmly, wiggle the thinnest edge between the teeth until they open up and then slid it in. You can then wedge it a little so that it stays open. The spatulas are soft enough that they won't hurt themselves if they bite it, but firm enough that you can open their mouths a bit. I've also heard of using a credit card to open the mouth as well.

 

[Adashek123]

alright so what should i be looking for? whenever i open his mouth, he just sticks his tongue out kinda and i cant really see inside of it. but i don't see blood or anything.. ugh. for some reason the crickets don't stick well to his tongue either.. i think if this doesnt go away or get better in the next 2 days or so than a vett trip willl be made.. ill try to look more in his mouth but nothing out of the ordinary so far.... thanks so much for all the help. he was climbing on the screen today, desperately trying to catch crickets but with little luck. however, when he does get them, i put more crickets one after the other in his mouth so he atleast gets his daily nutrition and food... i think its better than force feeding

 

[Adashek123]

he is acting normal though, extremely active and drinking well. urates look good, especially today with a big white urate and turd. im just getting so worried about the tongue... it doesn't look swollen so thats good and its pink so no discoloration or anything

 

[Adashek123]

BUMP

Alright so i just got a good look in his mouth and everything honestly looks normal to me... u can see that white, thin part of the tongue just like in my other chameleons mouths. no abnormalities, besides some of the mouth being light pink colored (usualy the mouth is yellow and white and little bit of pink) so i think it may just be sore for him to use.. would anyone reccomend starving him for a day or two and then throwing some feeders in and see if he will slam them?

 

[Adashek123]

I'm thinking that if its just a sore tongue and not an infection of some sort, then it will heal on its own if he gives it some rest. but i would love to hear your opinions

 

[pssh]

Any way you can take a pic for us?

 

[Adashek123]

yeah , ill probably do that or just shoot a video tommorow morning of him attempting to eat. I actuallly just caught him eating dirt... i opened his mouth to clean it out and he bit down on his tongue a little bit but not hard.. i don't know what that was about but now im deffinetly putting rocks over the soil in the pothos

 

[Adashek123]

wont let me upload a video but i couldnt snap any pics of him eating. hes really shy.. but today it almost looks like his tongue is slightly larger i know its probably not a good sign and still not sticking to the crickets. i am going to make a vet appointment. I really hope his tongue is going to be okay

 

[Adashek123]

he has a good appetite though, always running right to the crickets. I opened his mouth and can see some SLIGHT redness on part of the mouth but looks kind of normak

 

[Carlton]

wont let me upload a video but i couldnt snap any pics of him eating. hes really shy.. but today it almost looks like his tongue is slightly larger i know its probably not a good sign and still not sticking to the crickets. i am going to make a vet appointment. I really hope his tongue is going to be okay

Sometimes if the cham is dehydrated their tongues don't stick to prey as well. The gland on the tip produces mucus and they need to be properly hydrated to do this well. Good mucus production in addition to good muscle tone means easier hunting.

Many chams develop poor tongue muscle tone if they don't have to really stretch them. Hard to say if he's injured his tongue or not. Sometimes if a cham hits the tip of their tongue hard on a feeding cup from short range they become reluctant to hit it again. You might try putting his feeders in a larger plastic box that he can climb down to the rim of, and let him shoot from a bit more distance. If he really can't eat this way you could give him something by hand as you've been doing, but over time it might help him regain better tongue control.

 

[Adashek123]

its not dehydration, unfortunately it could be just something bad going on with his tongue. I went to the vet last friday and her name is Dr. Zellner. she has a really good reputation with chameleons, I got advice from a few members in my area to check her out. She said that it could be a number of things: an abyss/ or something in his mouth, a rear tongue infection, strained or hurt tongue, etc. She said since it happened so quickly, that It is for sure an injury or abyss or something. She said it can't be a deficiency because I showed her how I dust my crickets and what I use. But anyways, she prescribed me with metacam, which is an anti inflammatory. She told me it SHOULD get better in a couple days, and if its not better by 5-7 days, then she wants me to bring him back in, put him to temporary sleep, take his tongue out and look for any abnormalities. Im really scared about this his tongue hasn't gotten any better. I mean he cup feeds now but still, I would like him to have full use of his tongue. I don't like the idea of her pulling his tongue out because what if he can't pull it back in and then bites it off or something? Im worried any help is really appreciated.