Are Solid White Cats With Blue Eyes Deaf

White cats with blue and green eyes deaf.

Are solid white cats with blue eyes deaf. White cats are known to be deaf. Many cats are born with congenital deafness which causes deafness in the cat as it ages instead of later on. Some of these cats are deaf in only one ear.

The reason as you may have guessed is heredity. Melanocytes are melanin-producing cells like those in the skin that has to do with color. In cats congenital deafness is seen almost exclusively in white coated individuals.

Cats with just one deaf ear may. But kittens have blue eyes due to a genetic mutation that happens during the development of the embryo. Deafness may occur in one ear or both ears and is caused by an absence or abnormality of melanocytes.

Statistically white cats with blue eyes with congenital deafness make up around 1 to 15 of the total cat population. Why are white cats with blue eyes usually deaf. White cats with blue eyes often also lack the reflectiv tissue layer in a cats eye called the tapetum lucidum.

My vet said they dont have the gene to hear. There are several sources for a white cat to have blue eyes. It is true that solid white cats with blue eyes are deaf.

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. In solid white and high white cats there is a link to deafness because melanin is involved in the development of the inner ear the part that detects sound vibrations. Apart from dominant white gene W white coat on the cat can occur from albino gene c.