French lop eye questions.

Hi everyone, I just want to be better informed about eye issues in french lops, I've had a look on various websites but am not sure what to believe. Can anyone point me in the direction of a reliable source of info? Or any of you have experience?

I recently adopted a french lop called Darwin, he has slightly runny eyes but theres no infection and they don't bother him. I read that french lops are prone to eye problems, and in particular entropion (ingrowing eye lashes) - is this true? If so, is it something they are born with or happens later in life?

Also, I took Darwin for a check up and the vet looked at his eyes, and we noticed that in the corner of his eye (ie where the 'sleep' collects) he appears to have an extra channel. It looks like his eye sockets are too big for his eye balls. The vet and I assumed its a congenital defect, but since reading about french lops being prone to eye issues I'm wondering if this is normal for them?

I'd be grateful of any experience from others.

cheers

:wave: hi..i cant say ive heard of many issues except the entropion eyelids and of course eye problems due to teeth them being lops.

i have noticed tho that theyre eyes are so sunken and the corner membrane s quite large..that the eyes look sunken in too far sometimes..or in REWs particulalry the eyes look sore and weepy a bit.

my doe had nothing wrong with her eyes at all..just the way she could glare:lol: but she died before her 2nd birthday.

i adopted bertie aged 18 months and his eyes being a rew look odd most of the time!! but he is more prone to irritated eyes due to dust from me hoovering or their food and hay etc...and to fur when hes moultng bifs moulting and the cats..hes as bad as me!! but bif doesnt get like it. so maybe having a larger eye structure means they get inflamed more easily.

bertie since feb this year has been having treatments for a corneal abrasion...two small ulcers on his cornea.
they thought it had been cured..twice now..but its active to a point and they dont want to stress him out any more..esp as hes been ill lately from poss stress build up.

if oyu look at pics on the net of frenchies they do indeed seem to have sunked small eyes....

but i am afraid i havent yet come across what you are describing.
but im sure someone will be able to help you soon.

psst addictive arent they

Hiya.When I got my 1st french lop I noticed the mother had bad runny eyes,i asked the breeder if this was normal for a french lop,they said yes.Never having one before I took their word for it & still bought one of her babies,my Willow.Wills eyes were good until about 2years then they started to weep.She didn't have entropian,she had the other,cant remember what its called,when it looks like she has too much skin around her eyes & bunched outwards.It never bothered her,so we decided not to have it operated & to be honest it was only suggested once in the 7years of her life.She had eye flushes at the beginning but it was then just put down to hereditary.I bathed her eyes regularly with warm salt water & clipped the fur when it got too matted.After reading things about french lops I realised that it isn't always the norm & that I should never have listened to the breeder.
Barley,my present frenchie has beautiful eyes,no problems at all.She is 3years old.Also hip/joint problems are supposed to be a major issue with french lops & Will lived to almost 7 & had no problems in that department even though the vet warned us she would as she held her leg out slightly.She was 15lbs so her joints had to put up with alot of pressure!:lol:
This Is Will,not sure if you can see how bad her eyes were here.She was an old lady in this picture.

Jack's-Jane said:

http://merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/30105.htm

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The picture of the rabbit with entropian on Jane's link appears to be a very extreme case...the cases I've seen have just presented as runny eyes without any swelling.

willowholly said:

Hiya.When I got my 1st french lop I noticed the mother had bad runny eyes,i asked the breeder if this was normal for a french lop,they said yes.Never having one before I took their word for it & still bought one of her babies,my Willow.Wills eyes were good until about 2years then they started to weep.She didn't have entropian,she had the other,cant remember what its called,when it looks like she has too much skin around her eyes & bunched outwards.It never bothered her,so we decided not to have it operated & to be honest it was only suggested once in the 7years of her life.She had eye flushes at the beginning but it was then just put down to hereditary.I bathed her eyes regularly with warm salt water & clipped the fur when it got too matted.After reading things about french lops I realised that it isn't always the norm & that I should never have listened to the breeder.
Barley,my present frenchie has beautiful eyes,no problems at all.She is 3years old.Also hip/joint problems are supposed to be a major issue with french lops & Will lived to almost 7 & had no problems in that department even though the vet warned us she would as she held her leg out slightly.She was 15lbs so her joints had to put up with alot of pressure!:lol:
This Is Will,not sure if you can see how bad her eyes were here.She was an old lady in this picture.

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She was a very pretty girl regardless of her eye complaint. I hope Bob lives to at least that age.

BobbleG said:

She was a very pretty girl regardless of her eye complaint. I hope Bob lives to at least that age.

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Thankyou.She was the best bunny ever.She died 3years ago & I miss her so much.