Like humans, cats can also suffer from deafness, either from birth, or deafness acquired at some point in their lives and caused by an accident or a health problem. Sometimes, many people are not aware that their pet is deaf until a few months have passed since the pet has been living in their home. Most of the time, you can detect deafness in a cat if you call its name and it does not pay any attention to this call. For this reason, it is said that deafness is a hidden disability and not a visible disability such as, for example, lameness or blindness.
One of the fundamental tests to check if our cat is deaf, is to make very loud noises, and see if the animal is frightened or reacts to them. In addition, deaf cats usually also have a very loud meow, much louder than usual.
How to care for a deaf cat
Just because your cat is deaf doesn’t mean that you can’t communicate with it. In fact, there are many and varied ways to establish communication with a deaf cat, such as turning on and off the lights in the house when we are approaching our pet, or stepping on the floor loudly so that it detects the vibration and knows that we are approaching.
Keep in mind that sometimes cats can have temporary deafness due to excessive accumulation of earwax, a problem that is easily solved with a regular cleaning of the ear pinna of the animal, and using a cotton swab.
Deaf cats need, above all, to live in a safe environment because, as we all know, all cats have a very strong explorer instinct, but in the specific case of the deaf cat, the lack of hearing can lead to certain dangers when it is ready to explore certain parts of the house.
In order not to scare him every time you enter or leave any room in the house, try to give him a gentle pat or caress every time you leave or come. Deaf cats have a highly developed sense of touch, and they greatly appreciate contact with their owners and other members of their family.
Try to use eye contact as much as possible if your cat is deaf, since you can help him in certain day-to-day situations if you teach him some body language gestures.
Precautions when caring for a deaf cat
Because they lack the sense of hearing, deaf cats are exposed to a number of dangers, mainly related to the environment in which they live. In order to prevent anything bad from happening to them or any kind of accident, deaf cats must receive special attention from their owners.
It is obvious that a deaf cat living in a house can live a practically normal life, as long as all the dangers that could cause an accident are kept away from him and, of course, special care must be taken when they leave the house and walk down the street, since they could be run over, because they cannot hear the traffic.
Another aspect to take into account is that if your cat has a diagnosed genetic deafness, you have to prevent it from reproducing so that it cannot transmit this hereditary defect to its future litter.
