White Cat With Blue Eyes Are Usually Deaf

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.

White cat with blue eyes are usually deaf. The degeneration of the auditory apparatus near the ear cause deafness in the white cat. In the cat world white cats with blue eyes are very special kitties. No this is not always the case.

The gene is called W for White. The gene responsible for the deafness in white cats is dominant and symbolised by the letter W for white obviously. The uphill road to solving polygenic disorders The pure white cat with luminous blue eyes is an attrac-tive image familiar to many.

Eye color in white cats also relates to the potential for deafness. White cats with blue eyes had a high probability. Many cats are born with congenital deafness which causes deafness in the cat as it ages instead of later on.

White cats with one blue eye the other is usually yellow or gold have about a 40 chance of being deaf in both or one ear. And if the white cat has a different eye color for each eye heterochromia. 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 as likely to be deaf as a cat with 2 non-blue eyes.

Cornell University cites a study that found that 17 to 22 percent of white cats with non-blue eyes were born deaf. Black and white cats with blue eyes have a much more common type of hearing and vision problem that may be related to their eye color. Whereas 40 of white cats with blue eyes are deaf it nonetheless means 60 arent so you shouldnt assume a cat is deaf simply because their eyes are blue and their coat is white.

However the prevalence of white cats does vary in different geographies. Two blue eyes completely deaf. Unlike other white cats blue-eyed white cats have slightly different genetics.