My son took in a blind kitten four years ago. The cat now has extraordinarily long whiskers and eyebrows. She also has long hairs from the ears and scattered long ones over her body. The whiskers approach 60 millimetres and appear to be sensory compensation for sight loss. Is this likely, and how does it work? I cannot compare the cat in question with any of its siblings, so this response is speculative to some extent. The hair and whiskers of cats do vary dramatically, whether or not the animals can see. Cats have straight, non-woolly guard hairs that are extremely sensitive, especially at points such as the tips of their ears.
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