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. Richards J 1999. The degeneration of the auditory apparatus near the ear cause deafness in the white cat. The blue eyes in a piebald or epistatic white cat indicates a lack of tapetum.

The gene responsible for the deafness in white cats is dominant and symbolised by the letter W for white obviously. According to scientists a gene called W is responsible for a cats appearance white skin and white hair color. An estimated 40 percent of white cats with blue eyes are deaf which is high.

First of all it can be said that not all white cats are deaf but they are more likely to be deaf since they carry the so-called gene W White of white in English especially those that have one eye of each color or 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. 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.

The reason is the aforementioned W genotype. These cats are three to five times more likely to be deaf than white cats with non-blue eyes. Why are white catswith blue eyes usually deaf.

Not all white Cats are Deaf. When one or both eyes are blue anywhere from 60 to 80 of white cats will be deaf. The percentage rises to 40 percent if the cat has one blue eye while upwards of 65 to 85 percent of all-white cats with both eyes blue are deaf.

Among white cats with two blue eyes about 60-80 are deaf. Albino cats are not linked to deafness. In cats inherited congenital present from birth.