Are All White Cats With Blue Eyes Deaf
About 20 percent of non-blue-eyed white cats also are deaf.
Are all white cats with blue eyes deaf. Thus deafness is strongly linked to the white coat colour and blue eye colour but not all white cats or white cats with blue eyes are necessarily 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.
Hereditary deafness is a major concern in white cats and even more so if one or both irises are blue in color. The possible eye colors for white cats are copper gold green blue and shades of these colors. For years people believed that white cats are born with blue eyes and deaf.
However they do have a higher chance to be deaf and the chance increased when the cat has blue eyes. However not all white coat cats have blue eyes. 40 percent of white cats with one blue eye were 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. The variable penetrance of deafness and eye colour may be caused by interplay with other genes andor environmental factors. 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.
However a lot of white cats with blue eyes are. Do all white cats with blue eyes are deaf. The good news is a white cat is not prone to blindness.
The deafness is caused by degeneration of the auditory apparatus of the inner ear and may affect one ear unilateral or. Also when a cat is a kitten we may not be able to determine if they are deaf since they are already developing. And 65 to 85 percent of white cats with two blue eyes were deaf.