White Cats With Blue Eyes Are Usually Deaf

Why are white cats with blue eyes usually deaf.

White cats with blue eyes are usually 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. When one or both eyes are blue anywhere from 60 to 80 of white cats will be deaf. Albino cats are not linked to deafness.

The deaf ear is usually on the same side as the blue eye. 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. 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.

White cats generally have blue eyes or reddish eyes within the case of albinos. The gene responsible for the deafness in white cats is dominant and symbolised by the letter W for white obviously. As for odd-eyed white cats when a white cat has one orange or green and one blue eye the ear on the blue-eyed side is likely to be deaf whereas the one on the orange- or green-eyed side is usually fine.

The notion that blue-eyed white cats are deaf comes from many cats with Waardenburg syndrome being solid white with blue eyes. The mech-anism of inheritance of deafness in white cats has not been. Some of these cats are deaf in only one ear.

In odd-eyed white cats the ear on the blue-eyed side may be deaf but the one on the orange-eyed side usually has normal hearing. Among white cats with two blue eyes about 60-80 are deaf. Can a cat with blue eyes be deaf.

Cataracts are not the only cause of cats with blue eyes. However the prevalence of white cats does vary in different geographies. Why are white catswith blue eyes usually deaf.