Tongue injury from biting tongs...

[DVirginiana]

Last night I was feeding Trevor, and she clamped onto the end of the tongs and wouldn't let go. Normally if that happens she just spits them out and keeps the worm, but I guess she couldn't figure out a way to do that without letting go of the worm too. After a minute or two with the tongs in her mouth, she did the 'froggy narcolepsy' thing I've described in other posts where her eyes stop responding to light and she appears to pass out when she gets over-excited, and I was able to ease them out without her going nuts. She 'woke up' after about thirty seconds like she normally does when that happens. Even though it was like 4am I decided to soak her for awhile and monitor her, and she seemed fine and burrowed as soon as I put her back in the tank.
She had only a very short section of the tongs in her mouth (like slightly less than a centimeter) but she was holding on to it REALLY tightly. When I got them out, I noticed a small amount of blood. It had to either be a tongue or gum injury (maybe even from her biting her own tongue which stuck out more when she passed out), so I'm not super worried about anything important being damaged.

What do you guys think I should do as far as waiting to feed her again? I can't exactly open up her mouth to check the injury, but I'm thinking it isn't very serious. I just don't want an infection to start from getting food in a cut or something. She's been eating well, so she'd probably be able to go awhile without food if she needs to.

[GrifTheGreat]

Last night I was feeding Trevor, and she clamped onto the end of the tongs and wouldn't let go. Normally if that happens she just spits them out and keeps the worm, but I guess she couldn't figure out a way to do that without letting go of the worm too. After a minute or two with the tongs in her mouth, she did the 'froggy narcolepsy' thing I've described in other posts where her eyes stop responding to light and she appears to pass out when she gets over-excited, and I was able to ease them out without her going nuts. She 'woke up' after about thirty seconds like she normally does when that happens. Even though it was like 4am I decided to soak her for awhile and monitor her, and she seemed fine and burrowed as soon as I put her back in the tank.
She had only a very short section of the tongs in her mouth (like slightly less than a centimeter) but she was holding on to it REALLY tightly. When I got them out, I noticed a small amount of blood. It had to either be a tongue or gum injury (maybe even from her biting her own tongue which stuck out more when she passed out), so I'm not super worried about anything important being damaged.

What do you guys think I should do as far as waiting to feed her again? I can't exactly open up her mouth to check the injury, but I'm thinking it isn't very serious. I just don't want an infection to start from getting food in a cut or something. She's been eating well, so she'd probably be able to go awhile without food if she needs to.

Its possible that when she bit down on the tongs that she broke the fibers that hold the upper teeth into the upper jaw bone. Almost like chipping a tooth only with the whole tooth coming out. The upper teeth are replaceable and only the tips are the actual teeth held to the lower section of the tooth being an actual part of the jaw bone. They are replaced kind of like shark teeth only instead of coming from a separate row behind the first, they grow out of the jaw where the fibers hold the tooth.

Another possibility is that she did indeed bite her tongue which you'll want to be on the look out for swelling and infection. You should still try to feed her again because this is the only way you'll be able to see if the tongue was truly injured without prying open her mouth and having a look.

Could also be a gum injury if she hit her mouth onto the end of the tongs.

Another possibility is that it was blood from the worm. Believe it or not they do actually bleed and it is red. Especially when punctured or cut near the section where their eggs are kept and near their ten hearts. They die just as we do if bled out too. Its a far fetch, but could be very possible that it was the worm's blood and not hers.

In any case keep an eye on her and go ahead and offer food.

[DVirginiana]

I wouldn't be surprised if she broke some teeth like you said with how long she held onto the tongs... I know she did bite her tongue, but I'm hoping she didn't bite it hard enough to bleed since the tongs were in there most of the time keeping her from clamping down completely on it.
lol yeah, I have to chop nightcrawlers really small to convince my turtle to eat her vegetables. They always bleed all over the place when I do that. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure it wasn't the worm's blood, since I broke it off as soon as I realized there was a problem and only saw the blood after I finally got the tongs out.

Gonna feed her again tonight and try and get a good look at her tongue then. She's probably glad I got a pro-feeding reply on here. Thanks for the suggestions, I kind of freaked out when that happened last night.

[motiszm]

If you're worried about your frog getting hurt from biting down on the tongs then you might want to pick up some rubber coated ones. I decided to start using the rubber ones with my big female after she inhaled about 2 inches or so of steel . . . she was ok but it scared the you know what out of me. Now I have to fight to get the tongs out of her mouth but at least I know she's not going to impale herself on them.

[GrifTheGreat]

If you're worried about your frog getting hurt from biting down on the tongs then you might want to pick up some rubber coated ones. I decided to start using the rubber ones with my big female after she inhaled about 2 inches or so of steel . . . she was ok but it scared the you know what out of me. Now I have to fight to get the tongs out of her mouth but at least I know she's not going to impale herself on them.

The key to using the metal tongs is to never hold the food item where the tips are pointed in the direction of the frog. Always hold them vertically at a slight angle away from the frog. This way the frog can't impale itself. Rubber tipped tongs are always a good idea though, but they are difficult to grip the food items with.

[motiszm]

Yeah, they are harder to use, but I think it's worth it. I was using the tongs just the way that you described during the incident a few months ago, she still managed to inhale them. She likes to fly across the cage and attack food. Yes, she's a horned frog with wings! (I promise I don't give her red bull ) I will never complain about her feeding habits though because I love animals that want to eat!