Questions re: hearing tests...

[luvmytripod]

Questions from a friend who just adopted a 10-week old white american bulldog; he has a blue eye and deafness in the corresponding ear...

"Does anyone know if there are members here that have/had deaf dogs/puppies? I'm just wondering if there are any tests that we can do to establish how deaf he is in his left ear - if it is complete or if he could possibly hear certain tones? Would our vet be the best person for this job? "

Any thoughts? Karen?

[critters]

If they want a real hearing test, they could do an ABR, auditory brainstem response, just like with a human baby. I know UVA does/did them, but I have NO idea who else would.

[GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily]

There is also the BAER test : http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/testing/baer.htm
The critter site (sorry critters) is:

http://www.lsu.edu/deafness/deaf.htm

But there are some tests you can do at home for no cost at all (BAER is right pricey especially when you know pup is deaf).
What is the problem with white? My cousin describes it brilliantly at our http://www.MagicalWorldOfLethalWhites.freeservers.com site. Any white deaf dog, I suspect immediately.

the ear is actually 3 ears. The outer, the middle and the inner. The hairs on the inner ear 'wave' the sound waves to the brain and transform those impulses into sound. When the inner ear hairs have no pigment, no sound is transmitted and the hairs shrivel up and die. No sound. None. Ever.

I would be remiss not to mention ULF. Deaf children have resonded to ULF. What is ULF? Ultra-low frequency. I have had 3 profoundly deaf dogs, two still living. ALL of them respond to ULF. How did I test them? Well, they tested themselves, and when I saw a reaction, THEN I started my ULF research. Elephants can communicate 25 MILES!! by ULF. I had no clue until my Gabriel started barking while I watched an elephant program in which the elephants were communicateing ULF over that same 25 miles. I sat up straight and was astonished. I have researched ULF and deafness and the only links I have found is that deaf children have 'heard' ULF. So did my Gabriel. I spoke to a young man at a rescue even tabout this. We talked about the EXTREME possibilities. We talked about the fences that encircle my yard and wiring them to transmit a ULF. This is such an exciting prospect, and you heard it here first! The first thing that comes to my mind is VIBRATIONS. My Gabriel knows every single move I make, by vibrations. And electrical impulses. To that end, Gabriel astonishes me daily, with every move I make. Every single heartbeat transmits an electrical impulse and I trully believe that is how Gabriel tracks me. When mama's mad, he knows that as well, probably because the impulses are coming fast and hard. These are simlly my own theories, from a life of experience.

Some 'experiments' she can try: A can of coins. Rattle on each side of head and determine the difference in reaction. On the other side of the room, on either side of the head, call pup's name, at different ranges equidistant from each side each time. Clapping hands behind head and see which way the head swivels.

One sided deafness with sight to me is absolutely no handicap at all. Your recall has to be visual first and auditory second. Never off lead, never out of a fenced yard. If pup has hearing in one ear, this is an excellent time to start the training, and the first is basic obedience (see the tips in the Deafblind primer 101 in this forum). The second thing to start is the DANGER command. This will have to be visual as you can never place youself properly in an emergency. This can be taught on lead on a walk. As an intersection is approached, DANGER. As pulling on lead may jeopardize pupper's continued existence, DANGER, well you get the idea! Very excited for her and THANK YOU for sving this life!

[critters]

Actually, ABR and BAER are the same thing.

I also participated in some research at the Medical College of VA about Ultra HIGH Frequency hearing in hearing impaired humans. I've heard a bit of news about it over the ensuing decades; the head researcher was Marty Lenhart (pretty sure of spelling) if you want to try to find out more. He's a medical engineer.

[luvmytripod]

Thanks for the info guys, I've passed it on!!!

[luvmytripod]

I've got some followup questions:

"Clapping hands behind head and see which way the head swivels. "

For this part of the test - if I clapped on the left side (deaf side) should I expect him to swivel his head in the direction of his good ear, or at all?

"As an intersection is approached, DANGER. As pulling on lead may jeopardize pupper's continued existence, DANGER, well you get the idea! "

Curious if I could attain more information about the specifics regarding this command?

I certainly need to do more specific tests this week to find out more about his health concerns regarding the deaf ear. I'm beginning to have concerns he can't hear at all, but again - it may just be bad timing on my part (calling his name when his head is turned to me with his deaf ear). My reason is because DH and I are noticing that Vali will only come when he physically sees us bending down and clapping. If he's distracted or facing away from us and we clap, he doesn't look.
I will try out these tests tonight and keep you posted.

Thanks again, I appreciate the help. This is a totally new training experience for me!!

[critters]

This is mostly a guess, but I'd say he'd pretty much always look toward the hearing side, ie, if he was hearing in his R ear, he'd look toward the R if he heard something. With only 1 ear, localization is difficult, and maybe impossible.

[OneBlueEye]

Hi everyone - this is the owner of the american bulldog here.

Thanks for all your suggestions and thoughts, and thanks again Crystal for directing me here.

Critters: yes, so far with the clapping (we've also tried shaking car keys, as well as using our voice) it's been difficult to tell if he's responding to any of the sounds in any particular way. I've noticed that occasionally he'll turn his head to the right, sometimes to the left, sometimes neither - but as far as we can tell he hasn't responded more to one side vs the other.

I think I may have to pursue having a proffesional test him as I am at a loss to find out exactly what is going on - how deaf he is in the one ear, or if he is completley unable to hear anything at all. Again, our concerns remain because he seems to only 'come' when he see's us clapping vs actually hearing us.

[GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily]

Do you think he may be completely deaf? Are both his ears white? Does he respond to sound at all? A deafdog may astonish you. My Gabriel is both deaf and blind. NO ONE REALIZES this until I tell them. That is how well he accommmodates. I have a blind dog who a VET didn't believe was blind. A deafdog has an amazing array of abilities and if sighted, it may be difficult to say unless you do the tests I mentioned above. You say he doesn't respond until he sees you, that is my first clue. You can make sounds in other rooms and have someone monitor his responses. You can make sounds behind him and see a response or no response. Vibrations are IMPOSSIBILY IMPORTANT!

Youtube has a HOST of videos on deaf pups! Here's one of my favs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx-gzCszxIk

And another. Can you guess their disabilites? Nope! They can do ANYTHING!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5bdkHVM ... re=related

I rescue deaf and blind pups.... Your pup will accomplish more than you could ever imagine!

I am partially deaf in one ear. My hearing ear is the one I turn toward sound. Depending on the side the sound is on, my head will swivel to the right, or my body turns to the left so my right ear has a better chance of picking up the sound.

Danger is any sign you want it to be. With my hearing blind dog, it is the word DANGER! With my deafblind dog it can be any number of things depending on if he is attached to me or in the house. If he is on harness (and I highly recommend harness) a sharp quick tug (the harness is a Gentle Leader with the d ring at chest level) For dogs that can see and not hear, you can use hand signals. A quick chop of your hands, a sudden hand movement palm to head down to chest, a clap (these are all visual cues, not auditory) You give the sign and STOP whatever pup is doing immediately. When he stops you reward and he learns STOP at the danger signal. For some great hand signs you can go to deafdogs.org. If my guy is in the house in danger, I run to him and touch him. That always stops him in his tracks. In BOTH cases, I ALWAYS get between him and the DANGER. Always.

If he suffers from the pigment issue, my guess is he would be completely deaf in that affected ear. I have never heard of some hairs having pigment in an affected ear and others not. But I would be very interested in what doc has to say. Your doc can scopey the ear and see if there is pigment on the inner ear hairs, which would answer your question and avoid the BAER test, to my mind. Deafness in one ear, as I say, to me would be a GIFT! If my deafblind guy could hear I Love You one time in his life, I would be delirious!

Let us know. Deafness is a fascinating issue and one we don't often have scientific testing on, because in my guy's case, it is genetic, in other cases, it ois often the result of old age. Both irreversible. I have never heard of hearing improving in dogs. But I only know my cases.

[OneBlueEye]

Thankyou for those links!!

Yes, Vali is a pure white bulldog. The only pigment he has on his body are a few black spots here and there, and a freckled nose. I'll try to post a picture...
Hope this works - this is Vali with my daughter. You can see the blue eye in this picture and the few spots on his ears.



As of now, we're pretty convinced he cannot hear us in any ear. He does not respond to sound unless he 'sees' us, and then he gets very excited and comes over. Otherwise, he doesn't even look in our direction.

So far he has already learned how to sit, and will do so by hand command. He's so smart and is catching on wonderfully - follows the other dogs and seems to have picked up on housetraining. He's fine in his crate.

I will definitely start incorporating a handsignal for danger. Is there any other that I may need to teach Vali that you can think of, other than the usual basic obedience commands?

[critters]

Awww, what a cute pic!!!

[GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily]

Why, yes, you want to teach him tricks. You'll want to enter him in every pet trick contest and people will be AMAZED at the ability of a deafpup. You'r education of the public begins! People think we are bein gcruel keeping blind / deaf / deafblind alive, and we go out of our way to educate the pupblic that as KimK so brilliantly puts in in our case, they are DOGS first, AUSSIES second and HANDICAPPED third. My cousin taught GabrielDeafBlind to count. Yup. To Three. She touches his nose once. Twice. Only on the third touch does she bounce the ball and he goes nuts trying to find it. He knows 1, 2 or 4 won't result in a bounced ball, only three. You will have so much fun coming up with ideas to keep your boy happy and DAZZLING. He is a beauty and so is your beautiful baby!

[Christine]

What beautiful babies you have! How wonderful that you have adopted this little guy. As you can see, you have been directed to the right place to learn and eventually teach by example. Best of luck to you!

[puremutt]

they are both lovely!
I used handsignals when I found my dog at the time, he was not deaf.
he became deaf 14 years later and it helped.