Hearing Loss Is Hiding in Plain Sight
https://petacoustics.transistor.fm/episodes/hearing-loss-is-hiding-in-plain-sight
Hearing Loss Is Hiding in Plain Sight: What 10,615 Pet Screenings Reveal
What if the dog who suddenly seems stubborn is not ignoring you?
What if the senior cat who cries during the night is not simply becoming difficult?
What if a pet who startles when touched, sleeps through familiar sounds, or no longer comes when called is experiencing a change in hearing?
These questions are at the heart of Episode 49 of the We’re All Ears podcast—and my recently published study in the International Animal Health Journal, which analyzed 10,615 behavioral hearing screenings of dogs and cats across 86 countries.
The findings reveal that hearing loss may be far more common—and far less recognized—than many pet parents realize.
Nearly Half of the Pets Showed Reduced Hearing Responses
Among the animals screened, 46.5% showed no observed response in at least one frequency band.
High-frequency hearing decline was the most common finding, with 50.2% of the animals showing no observed response in the high-frequency range.
This is especially important because high frequencies often fade first. A pet may still hear a door closing, footsteps, a deep voice, or other lower-frequency household sounds while already losing access to higher frequencies.
To the family, that pet may appear to hear normally. But their auditory world may already be changing.
Hearing Loss Can Look Like a Behavior Problem
Hearing changes often develop gradually, making them easy to misinterpret.
A dog may stop responding to familiar commands. A cat may vocalize more loudly or begin calling at night. A pet may startle when approached from behind, become anxious, withdraw socially, or watch family members more closely for visual cues.
These changes may be labeled as:
Disobedience
Anxiety
Aggression
Cognitive decline
Normal aging
Sometimes those conditions may also be involved. But hearing loss could be part of the picture—and unless we screen for it, we may never know.
This is why I often say: sound comes before behavior.
Before correcting an animal’s behavior, we should consider whether their sensory world has changed.
Senior Pets Face a Greater Risk
The study showed a clear relationship between age and hearing response.
Among pets under seven years old, 42.5% showed reduced responses in at least one frequency band. For pets aged seven and older, that number increased to 50.2%.
Complete absence of response across all three frequency bands was also more common among senior pets.
However, hearing wellness is not only a senior-pet issue. The findings among younger animals demonstrate the importance of establishing a hearing baseline earlier in life and monitoring for changes over time.
Why Isn’t Hearing Routinely Screened?
Veterinary wellness examinations routinely evaluate the eyes, teeth, heart, joints, skin, and weight. Yet hearing is rarely assessed unless a family has already noticed a significant problem.
Among 318 veterinary clinics and animal care professionals included in the research, 79.2% reported having no existing hearing assessment product or protocol.
One respondent shared that they typically clapped their hands loudly or dropped a heavy book to see whether a pet could hear.
While these methods may produce a reaction, they cannot show which frequency ranges the animal can detect. A pet may respond to a loud, low-frequency sound while already experiencing substantial high-frequency decline.
This is the gap behavioral hearing screening was designed to address.
Behavioral Screening Is a First Step—not a Diagnosis
The Pet Acoustics+ hearing wellness platform presents species-specific sounds across low, mid, and high frequency ranges.
The observer watches for functional responses such as:
Ear movement
A head turn
An eye shift
Whisker movement
A change in body orientation
The screening takes only a few minutes and does not require sedation, specialized equipment, or clinical training.
However, behavioral screening is not a medical diagnosis and does not replace Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response, or BAER, testing when a formal audiological evaluation is needed.
Instead, it provides a practical first step: establishing a baseline, identifying possible changes, monitoring hearing over time, and determining when further veterinary evaluation may be appropriate.
How Pet Parents Can Help
If you notice a change in your pet’s responses, do not immediately assume they are ignoring you or simply getting older.
Watch for signs such as:
Sleeping through familiar sounds
Reduced response when called
Turning one ear toward a sound
Startling more easily
Increased or louder vocalization
Watching your face more closely
Responding better when you are nearby
Becoming anxious or withdrawn
Complete a behavioral hearing screening under calm, consistent conditions and save the results for comparison over time.
Share any concerns with your veterinarian, particularly if the change is sudden or accompanied by ear pain, discharge, head shaking, balance problems, or other neurological signs.
You can also help by approaching your pet within their visual field, waking them gently before touching, teaching hand signals, using predictable routines, and keeping them safely leashed or enclosed when recall may be unreliable.
These simple adaptations can reduce anxiety, prevent startling, and protect the human-animal bond.
Hearing Health Belongs in Preventive Veterinary Care
We check our pets’ eyes. We check their teeth. We listen to their hearts.
It is time we listened to their hearing, too.
A brief hearing screening can begin an important conversation between pet parents and veterinary teams. It can help distinguish a possible sensory change from a behavior problem and guide monitoring, environmental adaptations, owner education, and clinical referral.
Hearing loss may be hiding in plain sight. When we recognize it earlier, we can replace frustration with understanding and give animals the support they need to remain safe, confident, and connected.
Because when we understand what animals hear, we better understand what they need.