Hearing test to white

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tracey Koehler on September 5, 2008 at 3:29pm

Is this a new Cria Ricky? I would think that the only way to check would be see if she hears sounds. Make noises, when you talk to her , does she look at you? Does she hum? Do you notice that she does this when the others do? Sorry I do not have a real specific answer for you, but I would think that over a bit of time you should be able to tell if she can in fact hear.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tracey Koehler on September 5, 2008 at 3:31pm

Here is a post that has some info on research on deafness. I do not know if it would be of any help.
This was written by Dr. Anderson.
It makes me ponder even more, why do we lower our value on BEW's


With what we have done, we have found that the fact that they have blue
eyes actually has little to do with deafness other than the fact that it
imcreases the liklihood that they are deaf IF they have a white hair
coat.We have dispelled many myths:
1. blued eyed alpacas are always deaf - NOT true. We have tested many
blue eyed but not white or only partially white animals that can hear.
2. Colored eyed alpacas can always hear. NOT true - we have tested some
animals that are deaf but have colored eyes. Many have some flecks of
blue or grey. Certainly most deaf animals have blue eyes, but some
colored eyed animals are deaf.
3. If the skin is black they can hear no matter what the color of the
eyes or hair. NOT true. Many of the deaf alpacas we have tested have
black or darkly pigmented skin.
What we do know is that recessive color genes do seem linked to deafness
- probably because the gene loci are close together on the DNA. Thus, if
the color gene does not get "turned on", the hearing gene does not
either. This is most closely tied to hair coat color, but is amplified
when eye color is recessive too. Recessive colors are primarily greys
with blue discoloration in eye. We have seen two grey studs where
upwards of 20% of offspring have been deaf. This year we have 8 BEW
females waiting to give birth. The first one born is white, has blue
streaks in eye but dark pigmentation in over 50% of the eye, and is
STONE COLD DEAF!.
At some point, someone needs to decide if deafness as a birth defect is
actually worth researching and fund it! I do not care who researches it,
but I do think that it needs to be done."
David E Anderson, DVM, MS, DACVS
Head and Associate Professor of Farm Animal Surgery
Director, International Camelid Initiative
Ohio State University
College of Veterinary Medicine
601 Vernon L Tharp Street
Columbus, Ohio 43210
Phone 614-292-6661
Fax: 614-292-3530
E-mail: Anderson.670@osu.edu

David E Anderson, DVM, MS
Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Surgeons
Associate Professor of Surgery, Food Animal
601 Vernon L Tharp Street
College of Veterinary Medicine
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio 43210
Anderson.670@osu.edu
Phone: 614-292-6661
Fax: 614-292-3530
VISIT OUR WEB-SITES:
http://www.vet.ohio-state.edu/docs/ClinSci/bovine/index.htm
http://www.vet.ohio-state.edu/docs/ClinSci/camelid/index.html
http://www.internationalcamelidinstitute.org

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ricky - Silver Sun Alpacas on September 5, 2008 at 3:43pm

Thanks for the info Tracey :)
She is one month old, but not mine.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Maryann Marsh on September 16, 2008 at 9:33am

Gesshhh, how did i miss this one?! I have 2 BEW'S on my farm and one can hear and the other is stone deaf!!!!!! We knew our little Tutu (the little 6.5 pounder i am holding in my pic) could hear because once she caught on to her name i could call her from anywhere and she would come running!!!! Casper (born a month later) would not respond to his name nor a banging pot and i could come up on him while talking to him and he wouldn't turn around. At that time we were not sure if he was completely deaf or couldn't hear a thing. He was sold with his mom but he just recently came back to us now at a year and we realize that he is stone deaf. I have also heard from many farms that the moms figure it out within just a few days and know their babies can not hear them and tend to bite their ears or nudge them more often to get their attention. Seeing Casper as deaf doesn't seem to bother him one bit. We really had "hands on" with him at birth so he was always social but now that we have him back, he still is very social and very alert on what goes on around him and seems to not have a care in the world. He is a little sweetheart and we are now loving on him even more and he really likes having that interaction with humans and loves being touched. I have also been doing hand signals with him as well and he is really catching on! It's been fun for both of us!

▶ Reply to This