White Cats Deafness Blue Eyes

Overall deaf cats with white coat colour and one or both blue eyes make up around about 1-15 of the total cat population.

White cats deafness blue eyes. Cats with just one deaf ear may appear perfectly normal and their. Overall statistics indicate that. Strangely blue eye white cats tend to be deaf even more than others.

Hereditary deafness is a major concern in white cats and even more so if one or both irises are blue in color. Deafness is associated only with the dominant white gene not the white spotting gene says feline geneticist Leslie A. The deafness is linked to the so-called W gene.

The uphill road to solving polygenic disorders The pure white cat with luminous blue eyes is an attrac-tive image familiar to many. All-white cats born with one blue eye experience congenital deafness in 40 of kittens while kittens born with two blue eyes have an 85 chance of being born deaf. Do white cats with blue eyes deaf.

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. In odd-eyed white cats the ear on the blue-eyed side may be deaf but the one. According to the Cornell Feline Health Center only 17 to 22 percent of white cats with non-blue eyes are born with hearing loss.

The fact is that hereditary deafness does tend to be a serious concern in white cats. White cats with blue eyes are more likely to be deaf than white cats with gold or green eyes. Not all of these cats are deaf see part 2 of this short article.

Deafness is caused by an absence of a cell layer in the inner ear that originates from the same stem cells as well. As you may expect hereditary deafness in white cats is a real issue and presents a major concern in white cats and even more is if one or both irises are blue in color. Many people wonder if deafness in cats with blue eyes or in white cats is an old wives tale or a fact.