Hearing loss in cats can be unilateral or bilateral. If deafness is expressed in only one ear, then the owners may not even realize that the pet has an illness. There is only one way to verify this fact. When your cat is curled up sleeping, make a loud noise. If there is a reaction from the animal, then there is no reason to worry. Check the other ear in the same way when the cat turns over to the other side. Deaf people adapt to life very quickly and are practically no different in behavior from their healthy counterparts.
Most often, white cats with blue eyes are deaf.
How to find out if your kitten or cat is deaf
If the hearing function is impaired in both ears, then this becomes immediately noticeable in the cat’s behavior. She sleeps soundly, without twitching her ears in her sleep. Such animals do not react to noise in any way and are not afraid of loud sounds. They are left indifferent to opening the refrigerator door and opening a bag of food. Even the thunderstorm of many pets does not cause them fear of a vacuum cleaner; on the contrary, deaf pussies even like the air currents it creates. The same signs appear in older cats, but this is caused by senile deafness.
It is believed that cats with hearing loss meow too loudly because they cannot regulate the strength of their voice. But this is not always a sign of deafness.
Interesting! The sound ranges of humans and cats vary greatly. While humans can hear sounds between 20 Hz and 20 kHz, cats hear sounds between 48 Hz and 85 kHz.
Haruki Murakami
One of the cult Japanese writers of our time, Haruki Murakami, not only owns a jazz cafe called Peter Cat, but is also the owner of at least five tails with interesting names: Sumbria, Kirin, Scotty, Butch and Sundance. Cats appeared more than once in his works, for example in the novel “Kafka on the Beach” or the story “City of Cats.” In 2020, responding to a fan who wanted advice regarding his missing cat, Murakami said: “Cats sometimes just disappear. You should love and appreciate them while they are around you.”
How to check if a cat can hear
At home, you can independently test your animal for hearing loss. To do this, it is enough to make a sharp loud sound. A healthy cat will certainly turn around and give a reaction. A deaf cat will not react to a stimulus. To be sure, the animal should not see you; if your hearing is impaired, cats may react not to noise, but to your hand movements or vibrations in the air. The reliability of this method is 95%. If the situation for the cat is very familiar, he sleeps soundly and does not have a fearful disposition, then the faucet may be reluctant to respond to the sound.
You can only get accurate information about whether your pet is deaf at a veterinary clinic. And even then not in every one. To date, a medical test has been developed, which is carried out using special equipment. During its implementation, the frequency and intensity of nerve impulses in the brain that appear as a result of sound exposure are measured. In cats that cannot hear noise, such impulses are completely absent, which proves the presence of deafness. Diagnosis is carried out very rarely; owners often determine the lack of hearing in cats at home quite accurately.
Joseph Brodsky
For the poet Joseph Brodsky, cats had a special meaning - they were always present in his life. His friend Anna Andreevna Akhmatova discovered the similarity between the poet and a fluffy ginger cat named Gluck, who lived at the poetess’s dacha. Brodsky described him as “... a fluffy charm... a noble cat, a cat for all cats...”. Close friends of the writer recall that every now and then cat words slipped into the poet’s speech - for example, Brodsky ended a telephone conversation with the phrase “meow-meow.” If guests came to the poet, he offered to wake up the cat as a sign of sympathy.
Symptoms of deafness in cats
Congenital deafness does not always appear from the first days of a kitten’s life. Sometimes hearing disappears only after 2-3 weeks. In adult cats, hearing function begins to decline with age. But it’s not for nothing that these animals are famous for their endurance, because they have a very developed compensatory function. When hearing begins to deteriorate, other senses become more acute; they help animals navigate space and catch every movement in it.
But deafness sooner or later becomes clear to the owners themselves, when the animal begins to react differently to familiar situations. For example, if previously it was enough to open the refrigerator door or rustle a bag of food for the fluffy to rush immediately in the hope of getting something tasty, then with a hearing impairment the animal ignores these once attractive sounds. Pussies stop responding to the owner’s call, to which they previously joyfully rushed. In addition, they are not afraid of loud bangs and do not react to noise.
Deafness is not a serious disease unless it is caused by inflammation in the ear. As soon as you suspect your animal has symptoms of hearing loss, you should contact your veterinarian. Or you will be prescribed treatment that will restore your ability to hear. Or they will confirm the presence of deafness and give recommendations on how to care for such an animal.
Michael Bulgakov
Flour in the hands of the artist Natalia Ushakova, a close friend of the Bulgakov family, 1927
It was not customary for Mikhail Afanasyevich’s family to keep pets; his second wife Lyubov Belozerskaya, who was a true cat lover, instilled in him a love for them. Around the 1920s, a cat named Muka appeared in the writer’s family. At first, the writer was disdainful of picking up the cat, although he allowed Muka to lie on the table, having previously placed paper under it, but he always tried to caress the cat when it was expecting kittens. One of Muki's kittens was given to the writer Valentin Kataev.
By the way, Lyubov claimed that the prototype of the famous cat Behemoth from the novel “The Master and Margarita” was their domestic cat Flyushka (probably a descendant of Muki).
Types of deafness in cats
There are two main types of deafness in cats:
- conductive;
- neurosensory.
Conductive deafness
It consists in the difficulty of passing sounds through the middle or outer ear, which is why it received another name - conductive. Most often, the cause of its development is diseases or infections that lead to the accumulation of fluid inside the ear, damage to the eardrum, and occlusion of the ear canals. In this case, hearing is only partially lost. With the right treatment, it can be brought back with medication or surgery.
Sensorineural deafness
Often this deafness appears from birth and begins to develop already at the embryonic stage. She is not being treated at all. There are serious inner ear disorders involved. Most often, sensorineural deafness is complete; partial manifestations are very rare. It can also appear in adult cats as a result of age-related destruction.
Charles Bukowski
The famous representative of the “dirty realism” movement, American writer and poet, lover of women and alcohol, Charles Bukowski, as it turned out, is also an ardent lover of cats. Bukowski wrote that he could look at cats for hours and see only grace, brilliance and life as it should be. At one time, the writer had 9 cats. “In my next life I want to be a cat. Sleep for 20 hours and wait to be fed,” said Bukowski. The writer even published a collection of notes about cats called On Cats.
Diagnosis of deafness in cats
The ears have a rather complex structure; only the coordinated work of the eardrum, middle and inner ear helps the animal to hear well. If there is a problem at any of these stages, then hearing is lost. This phenomenon is often observed in older cats due to age-related changes.
Deaf cats are also called “eternal sleepers” because even the loudest sounds that cause a reaction in healthy individuals cannot wake them up. Typically, normal cats react to the appearance of a person in advance, especially if he is not sneaking on tiptoe, but simply walking at a normal pace.
You can check how close you need to get for the animal to hear you. It is necessary to make several such measurements to find out the exact distance from which the pussy begins to hear, since each time it can be different depending on the phase of sleep. The average value is taken as the truth.
Another sure way to determine deafness is to call an animal to you from another room. If the pussy does not respond to the voice, then there is a possibility of decreased hearing function. True, some cats may deliberately ignore you in order to once again demonstrate who is boss.
Only a veterinarian can diagnose “complete deafness” with certain accuracy. A specially developed BAER (Brainstem Auditory) test will help you do this. The procedure is painless for the animal; the main thing is to hold the cat and allow the doctor to attach a special clip with electrodes to the ear. Each ear is studied separately; for this purpose, the second one is plugged with an earphone or a foam insert. Next, an acoustic noise is made and the brain's reaction is checked. A well-hearing cat will have impulses in its brain in response to sound, which will be reflected on the monitor screen. With deafness, the brain does not respond to noise, and therefore impulses do not appear.
Deafness is not a reason to give up an animal. Such pets get along well with their owners and even interact with them, but the reaction is no longer to the voice, but to gestures or facial expressions. The owners of such pussies learn to establish eye contact with them, so man and animal get along well, understanding each other without words.
Why does he refuse to pee and shit in the litter tray?
One of the most common reasons why a cat has stopped going to the litter box is age. As practice shows, older pets often change their habits. It is also impossible to exclude the possibility that bowel movements occur spontaneously.
Special diaper
If an old cat shits anywhere, the problem can only be solved with the help of special diapers. A small kitten may defecate in the wrong place because it has not had time to acquire the necessary skills. The following reasons can provoke such a reaction:
- The kitten was taken away from the cat's mother too early, and she did not have time to teach him anything. If a pet is picked up on the street, it will not know what a litter box is.
- Stress due to new territory.
- The tray is inconvenient or too large for the kitten.
If the owners took home a grown-up pet, it may crap everywhere, thereby showing that it does not like the new home.
On a note! Yelling and scaring a kitten that is peeing in the wrong place is strictly prohibited. Such actions will not bring results and can provoke even greater problems with the toilet.
How to care for a deaf cat
Most often, deafness is a feature of cats with white fur and blue eyes. Read the article about whether all white cats are deaf and about the genetics of their deafness.
Such kittens are born with a congenital defect; they learn to live with such features almost from birth. As compensatory functions, their sense of smell, vision and touch develop perfectly. Therefore, their life is practically no different from the life of healthy cats.
If you want to buy a cat with a white coat, you should always remember the risks and be prepared for them. Typically, developmental defects are identified by the breeder himself, who then ensures that the animal does not produce offspring and that the mutant gene does not spread through generations. Owners are warned about the developmental features of their kitten, but this is not a reason to abandon the baby. It is enough to follow only a few rules of care to ensure a comfortable existence for him:
- While the kitten is small, move around the house carefully so as not to accidentally step on it. Remember that he cannot hear your steps.
- Make eye contact with the cat, and pronounce encouragement or reprimand with clear articulation. Later, the cat will get used to it and will begin to understand your address to him by your lips.
- When approaching the cat, create more air vibrations so that he senses your approach. Don't scare your cat by suddenly grabbing him from behind.
- Don't let your cat out of the house alone, there are too many dangers there. Even in a closed garden area, keep the animal in sight.
The cat who protected the girl is no worse than an ordinary dog
I want to start with the fact that my family has always been quite poor. I always had to wear things out, since I also had an older brother. At school I suffered very much because of this, as I was systematically teased.
Despite my appearance, I was a fairly calm and modest girl. That is why I had to endure all sorts of nasty things and ridicule from my peers. Even when it was too much, I never complained to adults.
One day my mother brought home a gray kitten. Everyone in the house got angry because he needed to be fed something, but sometimes they themselves didn’t have enough money for food.
But a little later it turned out that this cat was an excellent mouse catcher. And since we lived very close to the field, there were always a lot of mice in our house and we didn’t know how to get rid of them.
I fell in love with Gray as soon as I saw him. We played with him all the time, he slept with me, and what’s most amazing is that he always walked me halfway through the village to school.
At first I was worried about him, since there are a lot of dogs in our village. But our cat was very fighting. Seeing a dog aggressively directed towards him, he immediately hissed and defended himself in every possible way. Therefore, it could be said without exaggeration that our Gray is a real thunderstorm for the local domestic dogs.
One summer I was sitting near the river reading a book, and Gray was sleeping in my arms. And then I felt pain in my shoulder. One of my classmates decided to throw a stone at me.
As usual, the guys started throwing mud at me, and one of them even came up, tore the book out of my hands and threw it into the river.
The most annoying thing is that I took the book from the library. At the same time, everyone knows that if you do not return the book on time or lose it, you will have to pay a fine. My family will obviously not be happy with this news. And then I cried bitterly.
At that moment, when a tear fell from my eyes, my Gray suddenly attacked the leader. He attacked his face and bit him on the nose. I will never forget this picture with a boy running through the forest and crying in pain with a cat on his face in my life.
The cat unhooked himself quickly enough, but this was enough for my offender’s face to be covered with deep scratches.
His friends laughed at him, and I also specifically said that my cat was sick. Therefore, his face will remain like this now. The angry boy rushed to beat his comrades for laughing at him. At this time I took the cat and went home.
We still paid the fine to the library. But thanks to the cat, my parents found out that I was being bullied at school. Now everything is completely different. Nobody bothers me, because everyone knows what kind of fighting cat I am.
Clever sayings about cats
Cats are happy creatures. They don't care about anything at all! Henry Bates
Cats don't know what insomnia is. They can fall asleep anywhere and anytime. Jacqueline Francis
Only cat lovers know what a warm, luxurious, fur heating pad is. Suzanne Millen
If you're tired of being the boss of your home, get a cat. Valentin Domil
Cats have an unmistakable understanding of what it means to be completely focused and how to prevent you from achieving it. Arthur Bridges
Can you really understand what's on a cat's mind? It’s easier to guess from the wrinkles on the shell what a walnut is thinking about. Stephen King
The only thing that cannot be understood is why a cat ever decided to become a pet. Clark McKenzie
The main thing in training a cat is to pretend that you gave it exactly the command that it carried out. Andrey Zhvalevsky
If the cat fails to catch the mouse, it pretends to chase a leaf. Charlotte Gray
The cat will try to stay on your lap even when you get up from your chair. Until the last minute, she hopes that your conscience will awaken and you will sit back down. Pam Brown
There are about 400 million domestic cats in the world. Of course, there are not so many beautiful quotes about cats, but the statuses and phrases that are presented in this collection will satisfy every taste. By the way, the palm in terms of the number of domestic cats goes to Australia, where there are 9 cats for every 10 inhabitants.
Funny statuses about cats
Cats are a valuable resource. They create comfort. Aleksey Ivanov
A person is as cultured as he can understand a cat. Bernard Show
When all people are like cats at two o'clock in the afternoon, the world will reach perfection. Gregory David Roberts
You can only love a cat on its terms. Paul Gray
A cat chooses its owner, and nothing else. Helen Brown
Anyone who cannot understand his cat cannot understand anything at all. Winston Churchill
From an aesthetic point of view, there are only two ideal things in the world: watches and cats. Emile-Auguste Chartier
If a cat likes you, she will allow you to become her friend, but never her owner! Théophile Gautier
Women and cats do not come when they are called, and they come when they are not called. Prosper Merimee
The more cats you have, the longer you live. If you have a hundred cats, you will live ten times longer than if you have a dozen. The day will come when this discovery will be made, and people will get themselves a thousand cats and live forever. Charles Bukowski
Quotes about cats are mainly related to the independent nature of mustachioed tabby cats. And this is not surprising. After all, cats have been living with people for centuries, but not everyone knows cats thoroughly, especially their habits and behavioral characteristics.
Signs about the weather: the cat sleeps in the corner
These furry pets strongly sense an approaching change in the weather. By their behavior you can understand the onset of heat or the arrival of cold weather. If your pet curls up in a ball, covers its nose with its paw and sleeps for a long time, then expect a cold snap soon. When you see that a cat is sleeping with his stomach up, stretched out, warmth will soon come. If a cat scratches the floor with its paws, there will be a storm in the coming days. The cat is sleeping in the corner - there will be a cold snap or even frost. So the animal is looking for a cozy and warm place in the house; it can lie down in the corner near the radiator. The cat washes itself, turning to the east - there will be good weather, to the west - bad weather. A cat scratches its paw behind its ear, which means there will be snow or rain. When a cat spreads its tail in winter, there is a snowstorm. If a pet raises its back paw, the sun will soon come out.
