Brown tongue during a flare. I’m at a loss.

I’m (hopefully) nearing the end of a 2 month Crohn’s flare and since this disease just keeps giving the weirdest twists and turns of symptoms, here’s a new one on me - my tongue has turned brown. Not in the front but halfway back so when I say “ahhh” it looks like I’ve been eating something dark brown. It’s been like this for about two weeks and my dr has no idea. It’s not painful but I’d like to know what is causing it.

Has this ever happened to anyone else??

I’m currently on Humira, Prednisone, Methotrexate, folic acid, and finished amoxicillin a couple weeks ago. Could it be the medicine? Bacteria? It doesn’t look/feel like thrush from the steroids. I’ve also had anesthesia twice in the past month.

In the grand scheme of things this is so minor but every time I have a flare my body reacts with a new symptom it seems, like whatever is happening on the inside is getting pushed out thru my skin (rashes, ulcers, fissures, etc.) My drs have no idea and usually are concerned with the inflammation inside and not any side effects.

Anyway, I’d be psyched if anyone has heard or this and in the meantime I’ll be carrying around a root beer lollipop constantly in case I get any questions from people. 😂

Susie, so weird, right? Like what new crazy symptom is going to appear next. 😂 I do drink tea and coffee (no coffee now but weak decaf tea) but I have my whole life, this is different - it’s dark like the color of brown spice. My GI dr has no idea and said to keep him updated but I’d like to figure it out, it’s obv happening for some reason. My blood work just came back and liver panel was normal. What could be causing this? It’s a constant color, it hasn’t faded.

Thanks beave, I’ve been using a tongue scraper and brushing my whole mouth and it’s still here. My dr has no idea. It could be from the antibiotics but i finished them weeks ago so I’m wondering if I need something else in case it’s a bacteria or fungus? I’ve obv scoured the Internet and it’s not the black hairy tongue that seems to come up in a lot of searches, it’s brown and flat patches. Regardless, once I figure out how to treat it I’ll update this just in case it ever happens to anyone here.

No, I don’t smoke. I asked my Dr if we could try nystatin swish mouth rinse in case it is a bacteria/fungus. So I’ll try that for now, I wish I had more answers on this one.

Update: I’ve been using the Nystatin swish & spit suspension and also tongue scraping and oil pulling and it looks like it’s finally clearing up! In case anyone searches this thread in the future for a brown tongue during a crohn’s flare when you’re loaded up on 3 different mega-doses of immunosuppressers and antibiotics and in addition to the pain and symptoms and side effects to add insult to injury you end up with a horrid brown foul-smelling tongue.....

Ask your Dr if it could be a fungus or bacteria and try the nystatin plus the tongue scraping and oil pulling. Instead of let’s just see what happens and how long you’re willing to walk around like this. 🤐