[PyrNet-L] input on entropion

[Kshoffman@aol.com]

I'm looking for any observations, anecdotes, personal experience with 
entropion in litters, preferably in Pyrs, but any breed would also be 
helpful, I'll take what I can get. 

A co-breeder who has linebred stock from me (Great Pyrs) had a linebred 
litter of 6, 10 gen COI=25.2%, Unique ancestors=214, Common ancestors=147, 
and low and behold half the litter has entropion in one eye.  All these 
affected puppies seem to have very small oblique almond shaped eyes, but this 
is a common familial trait in the line in question and in the past I've never 
seen it seem to be associated with entropion.

Dam actually has a larger slightly rounder eye (although not what I would 
term a round eye overall).  Sire has the tiny little almond eye set 
obliquely, but not triangular.  (Triangular shaped eyes are often implicated 
for predisposing to entropion.)  Of the three apparently UNaffected pups (so 
far) one has an eye shape almost identical to mom, one has an intermediate 
eye shape between mom and dad, and the third has a tiny oblique almond eye 
like dad's but no signs of entropion at this point.  Dam's pedigree (10 
gens): COI=23.3%, U=268, C=137; Sire's pedigree (10 gens): COI=27.9%, U=235, 
C=152.

I did have reports of sire's litter sister (s/n pet) having entropion a 
couple of years ago, but long story short, details from the owner were rather 
sketchy and didn't always make sense at the time and owner (long distance 
owner) didn't follow up with providing all the info I needed and wanted.  
Since I'd never seen it before in several prior linebred litters with similar 
pedigrees and most of the same common ancestors, I didn't really stand up and 
take notice on that one isolated case as being something to be overly 
concerned about.  I'd used the sire of that particular litter twice, and I've 
used the sire of the dam of this current litter three times and haven't seen 
entropion in any of those breedings to the best of my knowledge, one of which 
was a grandfather-granddaughter breeding done by a different 
co-owner/co-breeder.  Also saw no entropion in the dam of the litter's 6 
other sibs.

So, now I'm standing up and taking notice and would like to gather more info 
on this to figure out how it is inherited and trace the path in the pedigree. 
So far most folks in a number of breeds seem to feel it is polygenic and mode 
of inheritance can throw a breeder for a loop. Also turns out that dam of the 
litter *may have* produced one case of entropion in her one previous litter, 
also a moderate linebreeding but only two puppies total.  Again, hard to know 
precisely on this one at this point as the bitch puppy was just starting to 
show a weeping eye problem (one eye again) at around 5 mos of age without 
evidence really of lid turning in, more just an apparent on-agin off-again 
irritation and tearing of the eye that started at about 5 mos of age and she 
hadn't yet been checked by a specialist when shortly thereafter the bitch 
contracted Parvo (fully vaccinated) and died.  Owner's vet noted when 
treating her for the Parvo that it may be entropion but since the pup died we 
never really could do any further investigation with an ophthalmologist.  
Owner just hadn't at the time thought of it being hereditary entropion until 
after the fact (as the most recent data has come to light) and neither did I 
quite honestly.

Neither sire nor dam has ever shown any eye problems, don't have entropion 
themselves, and to my knowledge have never had a single incidence of weepy, 
teary or irritated or infected eye issues in their lifetimes for that matter. 
(Dam is 4 yrs, sire is 3 yrs.)

I looked at these pups last weekend (age 12 wks) and in all three it seems to 
be presenting differently.  One is very severe (and she happens to have a 
terrible overbite (parrot mouth) as well, which is another defect I've never 
seen with this bloodline with several past linebreedings) and the other two 
seemed to be more mildly affected, one it even comes and goes ... some days 
the eye is fine.  This is the lower lid in all three cases and age of onset 
was different in all three as well. The worst of the three onset was early, 3 
wks, with no improvement, probably worsening since then.  The second it just 
started maybe 3-5 wks ago so at around age 7-9 wks and the third whose is "on 
again off again" just started maybe 2 wks ago.  Severity on all three seems 
to be of different grades.

Interestingly enough, with the "on again, off again" pup, she was very late 
to have her eyes open after birth and seemed to have an infection going on 
under the closed eyelid and vet opened the eye up for breeder/owner and made 
note of the fact that the infected eyeball appeared to be noticeably smaller 
than the unaffected one. This was at only 2 wks of age or so and 
co-owner/breeder and I had decided to wait it out a bit and see what 
happened. I thought that perhaps the other eye being opened earlier had just 
allowed that eye muscle to develop more quickly -- I have a child with a lazy 
eye and her lazy eye is smaller than her normal muscled eye.  Anyway, after a 
few weeks the smaller eye seemed to 'catch up' in size and the infection 
cleared up and all was well until just a couple of weeks ago. When I saw this 
pup last weekend, aside from squinting and slight weepiness I could not 
really notice any difference in size between the two eyeballs.

Surgery is scheduled by breeder's regular vet who says it is simple and quite 
successful and the vet has a lot of experience with this surgery.  Is that a 
good idea?  Can regular vets handle this surgery just fine or is a specialist 
preferred and is there a better age to do this and what is the longterm 
prognosis after surgery?

I've checked out suggested modes of inheritance in books by Padgett, Willis, 
Robinson, so any other info from other than those books or any personal 
experience would be greatly appreciated!  On the parrot mouth too if you have 
it.  This bitch puppy's upper jaw is probably a good inch or more over her 
lower.  She eats and has grown and developed just fine.  I've never seen this 
before in several previous linebred litters.  All I've seen bitewise in the 
past is an occasional slightly undershot, an occasional wry mouth, and an 
occasional extra upper incisor.

Any information or input appreciated, either privately in confidence or 
publicly to the list, your choice.

Kelley Hoffman
kshoffman@aol.com