# Eye Question about lionhead



## pipwin (Oct 9, 2008)

Following the suggestion of Angieluv who suggested I post this here to get all of your input, I have a question regarding my lionhead. Winston is a lionhead, with the viena genes going on.. he previously had two solid blue eyes. I say previously cause I have no idea what's going on now with them. I was hoping some of breeders etc may have seen something like this before. 


When he was sitting on my lap today I realized that half of the iris of his left eye is now brown. (Previously, I thought both of his eyes were totally blue... pictures have sorta confirmed that for me, but his eyes never turn out good in pictures anyways. However, I feel like I would have noticed this long ago if it's always been the half and half way!) The white part of his eye is perfectly white in both eyes.. the only thing i notice is when i roll the lid back at the top of each eye there is a light tan patch. Since it is on both eyes, I thought maybe that part may be normal. 

His left eye is below... looking to be the normal blue color.







His right eye is below, half brown, half normal blue.






Has anyone experienced anything like this? Should I be concerned about something going on with his eyes? I tend to overreact and make vet appointments very quickly, so i wanted to be sure this wasn't something seen frequently
Thanks for your help!


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## Star and Stone Rabbitry (Oct 9, 2008)

I've had this happen very often with my Dutch (it's actually quite common in Dutch). It's called "moon eye" and it's not harmful or anything... they say you shouldn't breed them if they develop it though.


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## Star and Stone Rabbitry (Oct 9, 2008)

Wall Eye/Moon Eye 
[size=+1]Glazed or cloudiness to the eyes around the pupil or cornea. Slow to respond to light. This is a genetic defect, and the rabbit should be culled if it is a breeder/showing rabbit. There is no cure for it, it is genetic.[/size] 

http://www.ephiny.net/eyes.php


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## pipwin (Oct 9, 2008)

Thanks Star and Stone! That makes me feel much better...I read on one house rabbit site that changes in the iris may be indicative of an ocular cancer and got pretty worried.  No breeding going on here, he's neutered...but glad you've seen this before!


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## Star and Stone Rabbitry (Oct 9, 2008)

Glad to help =)

If I didn't show rabbits, I would keep a rabbit with eyes like this as a pet. I think they look neat.

-Tiff


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## BlueGiants (Oct 10, 2008)

I don't consider that to be a moon or wall eye. Every case I've seen, the pupil turns cloudy or has a white reflection in it. And I've seen it affect the cornea, the lens covering the eye. But it doesn't turna blue eye brown.

How old is Winston? From what I've read, it's common for a Vienna marked English angora's to have eyes that are half blue, half brown. (Taken from website about Blue eyed white English angora's: "*Some Vienna marked rabbits have all blue eyes. Most have eyes that are part blue (a distinct section of the iris) and part brown, or blue gray (in the case of dilute colors). This variation in eye color, is another similarity with the Dutch rabbit breed.*

*These Vienna marked rabbits are good for breeding to get BEW, but aren't showable, because of the white markings and off-colored eyes.*" (http://www.psci.net/haencaoo/bew.html)

Either way, I don't think it's anything to worry about. I'm sure Winston can see just fne and I think it makes him look very distinctive.


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## pamnock (Oct 10, 2008)

The BEW, Dutch, and Chinchilla genes can produce marbled eyes. Nothing to be concerned about 



Pam


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## GalacticBunny (Oct 24, 2008)

Wel I can't sayI know too much about Winston's condition, but I have to mention that he is just absolutly beautiful!



This is slightly off-topic, as it has to do with humans, and dogs. My boyfriend has eyes just like Winston's (one is blue, the other is half blue, half brown, and split on a perfect diagonal), as well as two of my friends, and my dog! Interestingly enoughit effects the right eye in allfour of them (purely coincidence!) In humans,this split color effectis called "Heterochromia". In the case of my dog, he is a blue merle, which often causes "marbling" of the eyes. Thought I'd share a few pics for anyone that is interested!






my boyfriend, Tim.




my friend, Laura. (her left eye is blue while her right is actually half green, half brown- it's listed as "Trichromatic" on her driver's license hehe!)




Tim and Laura




Elliott (almost the same as Tim's eyes, but the split between the blue and brown goes on an opposite diagonal)




Elliott again (just different lighting)

And finally, here are some pictures of my dog, Doc. He's a beagle, shetland sheepdog, corgi mix. He gets the blue merle from either the sheltie or the corgi. His pattern is quite interesting, in fact, because his merle occurs only in a saddle over his back (this is because the merling gene only effects black hair- so only his back, wherethe black would normally be on a tri-color beagle, is blue merle. There is some merling visible on his ears as well, but it is not as pronounced- most likely because the hairs on his ears are only tipped in black)

























































Sorry I went alittle overboard on the pictures!


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## Dublinperky (Oct 24, 2008)

I think it looks pretty! Oh and GalaticBunny, your dog is adorable!!!!!

Aly!


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## BlueGiants (Oct 24, 2008)

Those are awesome pictures! Thanks!

(Hmmm... onder:...are you saying some of your friends might be part Vienna Marked? LOL! No wonder you like rabbits! :laugh


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## GalacticBunny (Oct 24, 2008)

Thanks DublinPerky! Hehe, my friends would have no clue at all as to what a Vienna Marked is. I do really love the VM bunnies though, lol.


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## pipwin (Oct 24, 2008)

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

Somehow I missed them until just now! Winston is probably coming up on 2 years in the next month or so. I thought it was weird to have an eye change like that at this point. However, he's active, loves to eat, appears to see fine out of the eye and is still his same spunky lionhead self! So I'm taking it as a normal thing, and he's still just as adorable as before!


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