When Your Pet Can't Hear
My-Dog.info > Dog Care
Deafness is often difficult to assess accurately, mainly
because pets are not able to tell us when they have trouble
hearing. Usually, it is their failure to obey our commands or
respond to familiar noises that first alerts us to a deafness
problem.
Compared to humans, dogs and cats have a much different range
of hearing. Humans can hear sounds in the 20 Hz (low sounds) to
20 kHz (high sounds) range. By comparison, a cat has a range of
about 48 Hz to 85 kHz and a dog has a range of about 67 Hz to 45
KHz.
Deafness in dogs and cats can be of two kinds: conductive or
sensorineural. If sounds cannot travel properly in the external
or middle ear (i.e. sound does not conduct properly), the problem
is said to be conductive. This can occur when there is an ear
infection, a ruptured eardrum, blocked ear canals or fluid in the
ear. Usually in these patients, hearing loss is only partial and
treatment involves medical or surgical correction. If this is the
case with your dog, a veterinarian may be able to resolve your
pet's deafness.
If the deafness is sensorineural, the inner ear is involved
and deafness is usually total. Sensorineural deafness is often
due to nerve abnormalities or problems with the hydrodynamics or
physics of the inner ear. As pets get older, deafness is a common
occurrence and sensorineural deafness may be the cause.
Deafness can be hereditary in many breeds. Breeds most
commonly affected include dalmatians, border collies, English
setters, Boston terriers, collies, and rottweilers. It can also
be associated with a genetic predisposition. Dogs with the merle
coat colour gene and cats with white coat colour and blue iris
genes are predisposed to deafness.
Deafness is difficult to evaluate in both dogs and cats,
especially if only one ear is involved or if there is only
partial deafness. Since pets cannot tell us what they hear, the
best criterion for confirming whether a pet can hear or not is by
its response to sound (i.e. the pet must consciously perceive the
sound).
You can determine your pet's ability to hear by making various
noises (from quiet to increasingly louder noises) and seeing if
your pet reacts. Often, pets will display an involuntary flicking
or twitching of the ears (called "Pryor's reflex@) in
response to a sound. Some veterinary schools have also had some
degree of success with objective evaluations of hearing, using
electrodiagnostic procedures.
If you suspect that your pet has a hearing problem, consult
your veterinarian so that he or she can determine what kind of
deafness is involved and what can be done about it.
Reprinted with permission from www.animalhealthcare.ca
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