White Cats Deafness Blue Eyes

The blue eyes in a piebald or epistatic white cat indicates a lack of tapetum.

White cats deafness blue eyes. Deafness is caused by an absence of a cell layer in the inner ear that originates from the same stem cells as well. And 65 to 85 percent of white cats with two blue eyes were deaf. Dominant epistatic white is a masking gene that overrides all other coat colours and is symbolised with the letters W D.

Some of the cats were deaf in only one ear - interestingly if a cat had a blue eye on the right side of her head. A cat with a gene with white spots like the tuxedo cat can have blue eyes or in some cases odd eyes. Cornell University cites a study that found that 17 to 22 percent of white cats with non-blue eyes were born deaf.

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. The deafness is linked to the so-called W gene. Deafness is associated only with the dominant white gene not the white spotting gene says feline geneticist Leslie A.

40 percent of white cats with one blue eye were 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. In the cat world white cats with blue eyes are very special kitties.

The uphill road to solving polygenic disorders The pure white cat with luminous blue eyes is an attrac-tive image familiar to many. Hereditary deafness is a major concern in white cats and even more so if one or both irises are blue in color. 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.

40 percent of cats with one blue eye are deaf and up to 85 percent of all white cats with two blue eyes have deafness. Cats with white Spots. Many people wonder if deafness in cats with blue eyes or in white cats is an old wives tale or a fact.