You can screen a cat's hearing at home by making a sudden sound out of sight and watching for an ear swivel or turn of the head. Your vet confirms deafness with a full ear exam and a brain-activity hearing test called brainstem auditory evoked response, or BAER. White cats face the highest risk from birth, and any cat can lose hearing from infection, mites, blockage, drugs, or aging. Quick home checks flag a problem; the clinic test sorts treatable causes from lasting sensorineural deafness.
Table of Contents
- Which cats show hearing loss first?
- How do you do a home sound check?
- What does the vet examine first?
- What does a BAER test prove?
- How do you keep a deaf cat safe?
Which cats show hearing loss first?
PetPlan UK lists common warning signs as ignoring treat-bag or food-can sounds, sleeping through loud noise, startling easily when approached, and meowing unusually loudly. A loud meow happens because the cat cannot hear its own voice and raises volume to compensate.
Risk is highest for white cats from birth. According to the Cornell Feline Health Center, about 17-22% of white cats with non-blue eyes, about 40% with one blue eye, and 65-85% with two blue eyes are born deaf in one or both ears congenital deafness data.
How do you do a home sound check?
According to Animal Friends Insurance, stand where the cat cannot see you, then clap, call its name, jingle keys, or run a vacuum and watch the ears and head simple home hearing check. A normal response is a quick swivel, turn toward the sound, or waking from sleep.
Test each side by sounding left, then right on another occasion. A one-sided loss is easy to miss because the good ear still triggers a turn.
- Test when the cat is calm but awake, not in deep sleep
- Stay out of sight so sight or air movement does not cue the cat
- Try several sounds: clap, name call, keys, food rustle
- Repeat once; no reaction twice means book a vet visit
What does the vet examine first?
Kingsdale Animal Hospital describes the first clinic step as a full physical plus a close ear exam. The vet looks for infection, ear mites, polyps, wax blockage, drug-related damage, and age-related change.
That exam matters because many acquired causes can improve with cleaning, mite treatment, polyp removal, or a drug change. Only after treatable blockages and ear disease are ruled out does the vet label the loss as lasting deafness.
What does a BAER test prove?
The definitive test is BAER, or ABR. According to the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy, the clinic plays clicks through small earphones and records brain electrical signals with tiny skin electrodes to diagnose one-sided versus both-sided sensorineural deafness how BAER testing works. Southfields Veterinary Specialists report that each BAER test in a specialty neurology clinic usually takes 10-15 minutes and often needs no sedation or anaesthesia.
That makes it a quick, non-invasive outpatient check for kittens and adult cats. Home and behavior tests cannot give the same answer. Southfields also notes that a cat hearing with one ear can look normal, so behavior alone cannot prove deafness or catch one-sided loss.
How do you keep a deaf cat safe?
Confirmed deaf cats should live indoors or in a secure enclosure. They cannot hear traffic, predators, calling, or other danger signals, so outside roaming is unsafe.
According to Cats Protection, use sight, touch, and routine instead of sound: hand signals, floor vibrations, regular feeding spots, a collar, and a microchip living with a deaf cat. Approach from the front, stomp lightly to signal arrival, and keep doors and windows secured.