Anyone own or used to own deaf cat?
If so, what was it like?
Was it lot of works compared to hearing cat?
What kind of signs/signals you use to communicate deaf cat?
Thank you for answering!
We had a deaf cat, sadly passed away only about a month ago, and to be honest we didn't handle her any differently than our other cat. The things to bear in mind are:
They're easier to surprise and every cat might react a little differently if startled, particularly from sleep. Ours just kind of jumped up, but others might be a bit more aggressive.
They won't react to shouts or loud noises. We used to clap our hands to get the attention of our cats when they were doing things like clawing furniture. That would usually get them to stop, but that was totally useless with her once she went deaf. At that point we'd just pick her up and remove her from the area, which seemed to work.
Deaf cats still like attention, grooming, and petting. I found that she became even more of a lap cat once she became deaf, possibly because of getting touch feedback from us.
In any event, cats are pretty adaptable and deafness will probably be a minor impediment to them and you. I wouldn't be worried about it, barely something we noticed.
We had a cat that was congenitally deaf. She was an indoor cat only. The major difference was that to call her, we would stomp on the floor.
Other than that, she was a really active, curious, playful, normal kitty. No special attention needed.
As everyone points out, no difference really.
To call attention you will have to change sound waves to another type (both clapping and stomping) and cause air pressure waves to which cats have relative sensitivity (stomps in my opinion are better).
One precaution though, do not let the cat to go outside unattended, as he is far more likely to fall prey to accidents of all sort.
Another case is panic; if something startles your cat really badly, he will panic with more lasting effect as hearing cannot tell him if he is being chased etc. so a little sensitivity on the subject is required
As John Cavan wrote, deaf cat will be far more likely to be couch cat, as he will be loving sensory input from petting to replace missing sensory input from hearing.