White Cats With Blue Eyes Are Usually Deaf

Are solid white cats with blue eyes deaf.

White cats with blue eyes are usually deaf. The fact is that hereditary deafness does tend to be a serious concern in white cats. Strangely blue eye white cats tend to be deaf even more than others. Another thing about blue-eyed white cats is that they are photophobic.

Are all white cats deaf. Overall statistics indicate that. 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.

Cataracts are not the only cause of cats with blue eyes. 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.

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. The notion that blue-eyed white cats are deaf comes from many cats with Waardenburg syndrome being solid white with blue eyes. Cornell University cites a study that found that 17 to 22 percent of white cats with non-blue eyes were born deaf.

However the prevalence of white cats does vary in different geographies. Albino cats are not linked to deafness. Among white cats with two blue eyes about 60-80 are deaf.

As for white cats with only one blue eye about 30-40 will be deaf. 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. The reason is the aforementioned W genotype.