entropion help

[Loppaflop]

After searching and searching for an English lop anywhere within a five state radius, I finally found one. Well, two. Their owners needed them to be rehomed, and really, really wanted them to go out as a pair since they are very well bonded. These owners obviously care about them a lot, and still ask for and receive updates on these two rabbits. My husband and I had both rabbits fixed, and all went smoothly with that. We've been overjoyed with them both.

When we purchased the rabbits, it was immediately pointed out to us that the doe had a blind left eye, and that they had been told by the breeder that it was from an infection when young. Well, the eye looked sunken in to me, and was accumulating a LOT of goobers, so I was pretty sure something was still actively going on with the eye. I was thinking the worst (abscess), and she saw our vet today. Apparently she isn't blind, and there is no infection or (whew) abscess. The goobers are from irritation caused by entropion. Both of her eyelids on her left eye are turned inward. Our doe was likely born with an unusually small left eye (hence the sunken in look), which caused entropion in the eyelids since the eyeball was not pushing against them normally. For now, they gave us ointment to use to prevent any scratching of the eye's surface. They are knowledgeable in rabbits, and are charging the reasonable price of $500 to do surgery.

That said, $500 is still a lot of money for us, especially for a non-emergency surgery. I was wondering if anyone had this surgery done, what the cost was, and if anyone had any ideas on how to either space the payments (have not yet found a vet in this state who does payment plans) or decrease the cost? Ie. I hear sometimes people can get discounted yet still quality care at vet schools or universities. That would certainly be a huge help. Any info or leads would be positively great.

I hate even getting one eyelash in my eye, I can't imagine having two rows of them poking in. :shock: Poor little girl.

 

[tonyshuman]

Oh dear. Poor girl.

It has been my experience that vet care at the university is not cheaper, and is often actually more expensive. That could just be my town, but they don't give discounts for your animals being teaching tools. It's too bad, but you do know that the vet in charge is really on top of their game, and the best specialists I've come across with the best tools to use for diagnostics, etc have been at the vet school. I guess it might be cheaper than going to an expert with a private practice, but it's not cheaper than going to a general practitioner vet with a private practice, in my experience.

It is worth asking locally, though. I should say that our vet school was willing to do radiation therapy on our bunny with an awesome new technology that was developed at our university for the same price as doing normal radiation therapy. The price of doing normal radiation therapy, however, is still quite steep.

It's too bad your vet doesn't do payment plans. There aren't a lot of other options. There is a credit card for vet care, but the rates are just like any other credit card. It's called Care Credit.

This surgery is serious but it is not very different between dogs/cats and rabbits, so a vet with dog/cat experience in this surgery and other experience with rabbit surgery would be fine. I don't think you need a veterinary eye expert or anything.

You can also check for local services that do low-cost vet services. They are very rare and most are only for dogs/cats and for spay/neuter (as that is where there is the most need, understandably). We actually have one in the area that will do other services at a discounted rate. Occasionally the SPCA or Humane Society will do reduced-cost surgeries. If you look for low-cost spay/neuter clinics, they may also have reduced rate other vet care as well. Good luck finding something.

Kudos for taking her in and getting her seen. Most bunnies don't get that chance and you've already done her a world of good.

 

[plasticbunny]

I've had this surgery done to a chow chow I once had (chows are notoriously prone to this). She got all four lids done for about $2500. I'd say $500 is a steal.

The old owner did say she wanted updates. Perhaps update her on this and ask her to split the cost, considering her negligence has caused this poor bunny to suffer for so long?

 

[Watermelons]

Ouch! I've met a few dogs that have had this, some serious,some that we could get away with plucking an eyelash here or there. Most common dogs we would see with this issue were Chows.
IMO from what we had charged for the surgery (laser) $500 doesnt sound too bad. Best thing to do payment plan wise is either ask a family member for money, or Visa it. A vet that doesn't know you will usually still charge intrest.
It is a delicate surgery, especially on an animal as small as a rabbit, Im on the fence about talking to a vet school(it would be cheaper up here however thats kind of a few provinces away in my case) However a normal vet whos done it before no problem. No need to go to an eye specialist ($$$$$$$)

 

[Loppaflop]

Thanks so much guys for all the helpful suggestions! Keep them coming if you could, and I'll start asking around and comparing. We do have an excellent spay/neuter clinic that we took them to. A lot of our main vets in the area won't even accept rabbits to be seen at all, but this clinic gave rabbit appropriate pain meds, and seemed to know what they were doing. I will have to ask them if they perform other procedures.

I'm honestly a little ticked at the breeder I am assuming these rabbits came from (only one in the state...actually tried contacting them when first looking, but received no reply) rather than the owners. I've since seen their rabbits (have not met/seen them) at some shows, and the rabbits have some noticeable breed defects in noticeable numbers (one defect was very, very cute, but very, very glaring. It was an Elop with one normal sized ear, and one long ear).

It makes me wonder why they keep breeding rabbits with faults, and why the shows keep accepting them. If it is the same breeder, having rabbits show up in your lines with undersized eyeballs...and selling them as breeders, is completely unacceptable to me. But, I don't know enough details to say for sure what is going on. Just wish I could get a hold of them and maybe tactfully talk with them about improving the health of their lines.

 

[Watermelons]

Can you phone around for clinics that have the laser? Might be hard to find (laser combo with a vet that will see a rabbit?) and it will be more expensive, but it will be much easier on the bun, and much safer, and well worth it. Easiest was to say is that they can litterly just zap away the eyelashes and surrounding tissues with very minimal cutting.

As per the breeder, some people are just like that, actually theres alot of people out there like that. Shows cant kick people out for reasons like that as long as the breeder meets criteria (sorry never showed). Some people can and will never change.