Deaf White Cat
Deaf white cats are domestic cats with a pure white coat. Some white cats suffer from congenital deafness caused by a degeneration of the inner ear. This condition is associated with blue irises. In white cats with mixed-coloured eyes (odd-eyed cats), it has been found that deafness is more likely to affect the ear on the blue-eyed side. White cats can have blue, gold, green, or copper coloured odd eyes.
In one 1997 study of white cats with varying degrees of hearing deficiency, 72% of the animals were found to be totally deaf. The entire organ of Corti was found to have degenerated within the first few weeks after birth; however, even during these weeks no brain stem responses could be evoked by auditory stimuli, suggesting that these animals had never experienced any auditory sensations. It was found that some months after the organ of Corti had degenerated, the spiral ganglion also began to degenerate.
Famous quotes containing the words deaf, white and/or cat:
“No such sermons have come to us here out of England, in late years, as those of this preacher,—sermons to kings, and sermons to peasants, and sermons to all intermediate classes. It is in vain that John Bull, or any of his cousins, turns a deaf ear, and pretends not to hear them: nature will not soon be weary of repeating them. There are words less obviously true, more for the ages to hear, perhaps, but none so impossible for this age not to hear.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“With his great white strong cold squares of teeth
And his little eyes of stone ...”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“There was a young curate of Kew
Who kept a tom cat in a pew.
He taught it to speak
alphabetical Greek,
But it never got further than ยต.”
—Anonymous.