White Cats With Blue Eyes Are Usually Deaf

Many people wonder if deafness in cats with blue eyes or in white cats is an old wives tale or a fact.

White cats with blue eyes are usually deaf. This percentage is even higher up to 40 in cats that have only one blue eye and somewhere between 65-85 of all-white cats are born deaf. 40 percent of white cats with one blue eye were deaf. Some of these cats are deaf in only one ear.

While there is a clear correlation between the blue eye color and deafness in white cats why is this so. Overall deaf cats with white coat colour and one or both blue eyes make up around about 1-15 of the total cat population. Why are white cats with blue eyes usually deaf.

And 65 to 85 percent of white cats with two blue eyes were deaf. Eye color in white cats also relates to the potential for deafness. The blue eyes in a piebald or epistatic white cat indicates a lack of tapetum.

The mech-anism of inheritance of deafness in white cats has not been. However a lot of white cats with blue eyes are. 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.

Albino cats are not linked to deafness. An estimated 40 percent of white cats with blue eyes are deaf which is high. Deafness in the white cat is generally seen in the inherited congenital deficiencies found mainly in the white-coated cats.

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. Cataracts are not the only cause of cats with blue eyes. 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.