Greetings!
Should we establish a normal reference value of palpebral fissure length in different species?
In my opinion, It's not obligatory to have PFL of all species. One of the most important aspect of measuring PFL is to find the ability of the eye to tolerate measuring tearfilm strips like PRT and STT. Knowing the PFL could be helpful to choose the right strip for quantitative tear film assessment.
It would be great to ask this Q from David Williams
Seyed Mehdi Rajaei
I respect that it takes time and consideration to write such a helpful reply. Thank you so much.
I'll share this question with Dr. Williams as well.
One of the most important reasons to measure palpebral length is that an excessive eyelid length can lead to entropion of the lateral lower eyelid in some animals. In others it leads to a macropalpebral fissure and a combination of entropion-ectropion. There are also cases of microblepharon. All of this is important clinically (i.e. to know how best to operate an animal with one or another type of entropion - different entropions require different surgical approaches) but also for breeding (i.e. to not allow affected animals to breed, or to breed them with unaffected animals to reduce the effect of the problem). There is an article on palpebral eyelid length of dogs and cats from 1992 (now considered a little old, but unique, so still relevant). You might also find interesting the guidelines of the ECVO that mention macroblepharon and microblepharon (through www.ECVO.org, under hereditary eye diseases (HED)). I have included the paper and the guidelines for your interest (I have highlighted the important part of the guidelines). Enjoy.
Rick F Sanchez
I sincerely appreciate the information and files you have shared!
Thanks for sharing your invaluable knowledge, and for being so helpful.
Hello again,
My apologies if my previous reply was not clear or specific enough, ir if it caused any confusion for you.
There is no “need” at all to do this in general practice in the context of the conventional goals set for general practitioners all over the world in our present time. There are some very important, but very specific needs in the context of breeding practices / guidelines (for breeders, specialists and even governmental bodies that regulate animal welfare issues), and for surgery in some cases, though this is (generally) mainly focused toward ophthalmic specialists because they are considered a safeguard and monitors of certain conditions - this does not mean that general veterinarians should not be educated in these topics.
I do not think the problems we see at the moment (mainly in dogs, and occasionally in cats) is of such concern in other species to warrant the publication of their eyelid length - it would have to be shown to be directly correlated to a particular problem. It might be of interest as part of a much larger biometric study for species for which we have no such data.
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