White Cats With Blue Eyes Are Usually Deaf

The gene responsible for the deafness in white cats is dominant and symbolised by the letter W for white obviously.

White cats with blue eyes are usually deaf. Not all white cats with blue eyes are deaf. Richards J 1999. Strangely blue eye white cats tend to be deaf even more than others.

So not all white cats are deaf and not all blue-eyed white cats are deaf but a great many of them are so-affected. 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. When one or both eyes are blue anywhere from 60 to 80 of white cats will be deaf.

For those cats with other colored eyes only 10-20 are deaf. Whereas 40 of white cats with blue eyes are deaf it nonetheless means 60 arent so you shouldnt assume a cat is deaf simply because their eyes are blue and their coat is white. The reason is the aforementioned W genotype.

Not all white Cats are 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. Cornell University cites a study that found that 17 to 22 percent of white cats with non-blue eyes were born deaf.

The notion that blue-eyed white cats are deaf comes from many cats with Waardenburg syndrome being solid white with blue eyes. Some of these cats are deaf in only one ear. Are solid white cats with blue eyes deaf.

Why are white cats with blue eyes usually deaf. 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.