Unilateral and bilateral congenital sensorineural deafness in client-owned pure-breed white cats.
BACKGROUND
Congenital sensorineural deafness has been reported frequently in experimental mixed-breed white cats but there is a paucity of data on occurrence of deafness in client-owned pure-breed white cats.


OBJECTIVE
To describe hearing status in client-owned pure-breed white cats.


METHODS
Eighty-four pure-breed client-owned cats with white coat color of 10 registered breeds presented for routine hearing evaluation before breeding (1995-2008).


METHODS
Hearing was assessed by click-evoked brainstem auditory evoked response.


RESULTS
Overall deafness prevalence was 20.2%; 9 cats (10.7%) were bilaterally deaf and 8 cats (9.5%) were unilaterally deaf. There was no association between sex and deafness status (P= .85). Deafness status was associated with iris color (P= .04).


CONCLUSIONS
Congenital sensorineural deafness frequently occurs in pure-breed cats with white coat color. Unilateral sensorineural deafness was as common as bilateral deafness.
Cvejic
D
D
Section of Neurology, Clinic of Small Animal Medicine, Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany.
Steinberg
T A
TA
Kent
M S
MS
Fischer
A
A
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000662:veterinary; D000818:Animals; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000151:congenital / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002415:Cats; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000151:congenital / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence