Are Most White Cats Deaf

The reason as you may have guessed is heredity.

Are most white cats deaf. It s believed that the ear closest to the oddly colored eye or both ears if both eyes are uniquely colored will be the ear with deafness. Felines with a single blue eye are often deaf in one hear usually the ear on the same side as their blue eye while two blue eyes make an ivory cat likely to suffer total deafness in both ears. Congenital sensorineural deafness occurs commonly in domestic cats with a white coat. If a white cat has 2 blue eyes it is 3 5 times more likely to be deaf than a cat with 2 non blue eyes and a cat with 1 blue eye is about twice.

My veterinarian said white cats are often deaf. Is that true and why. In a cat with the white spot gene the deafness usually occurs in the ear affected by the spot. The same genetic factors that give white cats their snowy coats and unique eye colors can also cause total or partial deafness in many kitties.

40 percent of odd eyed white cats with one blue. Interestingly if a white cat with one blue eye is deaf in only one ear that ear will invariably be on the same side of the head as the blue eye. For this reason a cat with odd eyes can be deaf from the ear that is on the side of the blue eye. Deafness is far more common in white cats than in those with other coat colors.

Overall deaf cats with white coat colour and one or both blue eyes make up around about 1 1 5 of the total cat population. A white cat with one blue eye has a 39 chance of at least partial deafness and a white cat with two blue eyes may have a 65 chance. Black and white cats do however have a different physique than most felines. About half of all white cats are deaf and those numbers increase in cats with blue eyes with deafness often found on the same side as the blue eye left blue eye deaf in left ear.

It is this w gene which is the most prone to causing deafness in white cats. The roll of the genetic dice that produces a white. Contrary to popular belief white cats are no more likely than any other coat color to be deaf. No they are not deaf at all.

Some people say that deafness in a cat is due to hearing loss but the change in ear canal size does not change how the cats here and there is no evidence of any other loss of hearing that would make a cat deaf. Some of these cats are deaf in only one ear. Cats with the dominant white or white spots gene may suffer from genetic deafness. Two blue eyes completely deaf.

It is curious to note that that particular cat could have shown a wide range of colors. It is a congenital deafness caused by a degeneration of the inner ear. However the prevalence of white cats does vary in different geographies. According to the aspca complete guide to cats 17 to 20 percent of white cats with nonblue eyes are deaf.

Deafness in white cats typically is a genetic condition resulting from the dominant white gene commonly referred to as the w gene.