White Cats With Blue Eyes Are Usually Deaf

However a lot of white cats with blue eyes are.

White cats with blue eyes are usually deaf. The reason is the aforementioned W genotype. In cats inherited congenital present from birth. 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.

Unless both ears are affected cats may never show any signs of hearing loss. White cats generally have blue eyes or reddish eyes within the case of albinos. Another thing about blue-eyed white cats is that they are photophobic.

An estimated 40 percent of white cats with blue eyes are deaf which is high. 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. According to scientists a gene called W is responsible for a cats appearance white skin and white hair color.

Furthermore if a cat has one blue eye and one green the ear on the side of the blue eye is more likely to be deaf than the other. Deafness is caused by an absence of a cell layer in the inner ear that originates from the same stem cells as well. Eye color in white cats also relates to the potential for deafness.

Albino cats are not linked to deafness. A cat with an extreme form of the white-spotting gene may have more-or-less the same coloring maybe a few blond or gray hairs but is no more likely to be deaf than any other cat. Can only detect less than 5000 characters1965RSPSPP162147B.

When one or both eyes are blue anywhere from 60 to 80 of white cats will be deaf. Can a cat with blue eyes be deaf. While there is a clear correlation between the blue eye color and deafness in white cats why is this so.