Cat Lost His Voice

CatChannel veterinary expert, Arnold Plotnick, DVM, explains that it can be difficult to determine the cause of a change in a cat's voice.

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Q: I have a question which several veterinarians could not answer for me. My cat Sylvester seems to have lost his voice. What would be the cause of this? Could an illness be involved? 

A: Loss or change of voice is one of those vague problems that drive vets crazy.  In most cases that I’ve encountered, I could not attribute the voice change to any particular cause.  In some instances, however, the cause is readily apparent. The most common cause I’ve seen is a viral upper respiratory infection, with the herpes virus and/or the feline calicivirus being the main culprit. Most viral upper respitory infections result in runny eyes, snotty nose and lots of sneezing. Occasionally they’re result in laryngitis — a “sore throat” — and a hoarse or lost voice.

I’ve seen cats with oral tumors involving the throat or the vocal cords that resulted in a voice change or loss. Finally, there is a condition called laryngeal paralysis, in which the nerve that controls the vocal folds becomes damaged, causing the larynx not to open properly, resulting in a change of voice. This is much more common in dogs than cats. Interestingly, I diagnosed my first case of this about four days ago.

Even though most cases are due to upper respiratory infections, which are fairly benign, a change in voice should be evaluated by your veterinarian. He or she might want to sedate the cat and perform a thorough oral exam, looking at the back of the throat, and even trying to pass an endotracheal tube down the trachea to see if there is a mass or other obstruction. X-rays may be necessary to look for masses that are in the trachea or in the neck that cannot be detected simply by feel. 

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Cat Lost His Voice

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Sara    Raleigh, NC 2/20/2013 5:20:43 PM My cat is 13 years old and just recently we have noticed that he has almost lost his voice. He has a faint meow almost like a kitten meow. He has been licking himself a lot lately but hasn't hairballed. We have given him some catlax but it hasn't been working. RayUK    International 1/14/2013 4:49:21 PM This is interesting. I adopted a stray female cat about a year ago. She's about 3 yrs old now and up until about a month ago she always had this deep, raspy, barely audible meow.now all of a sudden she's got a high more normal-sounding meow and has started "talking" to me and exhibiting more normal cat behaviours- surely she wouldn't have had a infection for over a year? We even had her checked by our vet who found her raspy hoarse old meow was nothing to worry about... #confused Viv    Sydney, AL 11/26/2012 3:32:46 AM Hi. My cat lost her meow about a year ago. She is pushing 16 years bless her and is happy otherwise. I believe her vocal loss has come about through need for insulin shots required to control her diabetes. The diabetes also affects muscle growth so feel is inter-related. Ie. not able to jump as much and lack of muscle means can't retract toenails at times either. Maybe something muscular is required to produce meow and so has been affected too(?) then again, despite all that, I dont think I'd jump too high at 90 either(!). Hope all goes well for you. Cat Editor    Irvine, CA 9/12/2012 12:58:16 PM Inge, we're hoping for the best for you and your cat. Let us know how his vet appointment goes.