30 Day Old Kitten , Deaf?

[New mom]

I found an abandoned 4 day old stray kitten. She is 30 days old now. She is doing great, eating well, putting on 10-15g every day, playing, pooping- peeing etc. I just started her on kitten food and milk too. She is not happy eating by herself yet so still bottle feeding her. Today I noticed she is not responding to sound. I have tried clapping behind her head, she does not respond to a small ball with bell in it. Not sure if she can hear or not. For her age she is very small. Today she weighted at 245g. She fits on my palm and is very tiny. Could it be that her growth is slower so she might take a little bit more time on her growth?

 

[donutte]

Quick question, has she been to the vet yet?

 

[abyeb]

Thanks for caring for this little kitty! A kitten’s ears will usually open at a week old, so if your kitten isn’t responding to sound yet, I think that it’s possible that she is deaf, but the vet can confirm for you- there’s also a chance that her ears just need to be cleaned.

This article gives more information about deafness in cats and tips for happy living with a deaf cat: The Deaf Cat

Out of curiosity, what color is she? White cats with blue eyes are more likely to be deaf.

 

[New mom]

She has been to the vet but at that point was not checked for deafness. I read somewhere that the ear canal of the cats open at 25 days as she is 30 days old I am keeping my fingers crossed that she is just slow in growth.

 

[Sarthur2]

She just sounds behind to me.

At 245 grams she is only half a pound, which is the size of a 2-week old kitten.

She should weigh one pound by now, so keep feeding her well and give her time to develop. Hopefully she will be just fine!

 

[Mamanyt1953]

And if she does happen to be deaf, remember that she will still be a happy, well-adjusted cat with a wonderful quality of life! Since almost all of a cat's natural communication is non-verbal, she'll be fine. The only real accommodation you will need to make is to not grab her from behind and startle her...but that holds true with most hearing cats, as well! DO keep bottle feeding. 30 days is very yound for full weaning, although she may be interested in attempting soft solids.

 

[tinydestroyer]

My husband thought that our bottle baby was deaf when we found her, as well. He tried jingling a toy behind her, or making a loud noise, and she didn't respond. The vet checked her ears for common causes of deafness (injury to ear canal, and ear infection, etc.) and said she's fine in that regard, but to actually test for deafness, we'd have to go to a specialist vet and get the BAER test. It is a way of measuring electric impulses in the brain when the cat is exposed to certain sounds (because the cat can't tell us if they can hear the sounds!)

The vet we went to mentioned that deafness in indoor only cats is really not a big deal, and can be managed quite easily. While we were waiting to see if we wanted to get the BAER test, we noticed our cat directing her ears individually towards certain sounds (like approaching cars, or our other cat.) We then figured that she probably wasn't deaf, but just ignoring our earlier "testing" in the same way she ignores all the other random noises we make around the house when we talk and move around. She only reacts to the noises in which she's interested.

This may or may not be the case with your kitten. Hopefully, she's fine, but it is very likely that her lifestyle would be minimally impacted even if she were deaf, especially if you keep her inside away from cars / predators. You may eventually be able to tell if she's deaf or not without the BAER just by living with her, as we did, and you might be satisfied just making sure her ears are otherwise healthy, as we were. However, (according to my vet,) that test is the only surefire way to have an answer if you continue to suspect something. Hopefully all is well, and she grows into a happy and healthy kitty! We'd love some pics of the little one!

 

[Sarthur2]

IF she is deaf, and I think that cannot be truly determined yet, here is an informative article:

The Deaf Cat

 

[New mom]

Thank you all guys. I guess I want to hear someone else say that she is just slow in growth. I was not planning on keeping her as indoor cat as my husband has very bad allergies to cat but if if she does happen to be deaf then I might have to rethink. Anyways keeping fingers crossed that she will grow out of this. She has been shaking her head a lot. Her eating is really good (100 -120 ml), still bottle feeding her, not yet interested in eating herself.

 

[tinydestroyer]

Thank you all guys. I guess I want to hear someone else say that she is just slow in growth. I was not planning on keeping her as indoor cat as my husband has very bad allergies to cat but if if she does happen to be deaf then I might have to rethink. Anyways keeping fingers crossed that she will grow out of this. She has been shaking her head a lot. Her eating is really good (100 -120 ml), still bottle feeding her, not yet interested in eating herself.

If she's shaking her head a lot, I would take her in to the vet. It could be that she has an ear infection, or ear mites or something. If she was born deaf, I would think it wouldn't shake her shake her head or be bothered by it. Aside from that, her hearing issues (if present,) might be a symptom of another ear issue that needs to be looked at, and they could worsen if left untreated.
If it turns out that she is deaf, I think you're right to re-evaluate letting her outside. Predators, cars, people and other cats can all be a danger to any outdoor cat, but this would be especially true if the cat can't hear danger coming.

Depending on how allergic your husband is to cats, some of these suggestions might help him live with the allergy:
Living With Cat Allergy
Although I'm sure you already have some coping measures in place for him currently which work well for you, these might also help.

 

[talkingpeanut]

Please let us know how she does. I would be very hesitant about keeping any kitten raised inside outside. Is your husband willing to try allergy medicine?

 

[Sarthur2]

I agree that a vet needs to look at her ears. Head shaking indicates ear mites or an ear infection. Please see to it ASAP.

 

[New mom]

SHE CAN HEAR. My god, so happy to share that my Luna can hear, is responding when called.

Thank you everyone for the support and suggestions.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

What execellent news! But do go ahead and have that head-shaking issue checked out, just to be safe!

 

[tinydestroyer]

I'm so happy she can hear, too! I agree to go ahead and get her ears checked if you haven't already. But that is awesome news!

 

[New mom]

Thank you guys again for all the help. Luna can her.....everything.