Expert: Karen Craft - 12/20/2009

Question
A few weeks ago my 9 year old calico lost her voice. She would meow and nothing came out. A few days ago her voice seems to have started to come back. When she meows it sounds raspy now though. Her behavior hasnt changed much, shes not as social as she use to be. But I lost 2 of my other cats in October, and my vet said she may be depressed a little.

Answer
Hi Christine,

Here's an answer from Dr. Mike Richards about this.
"
This is a vexing problem in veterinary medicine. I have at least 10 or 20 cat patients who have lost their voices either temporarily or permanently. So far, I have not been able to pin down a definite cause in many of them. One or two had visible oral cancers and I assumed they were the cause of the voice loss. In a couple of the short term voice loss cases there were enough signs of upper respiratory disease that I assumed laryngitis from one of them was present. The viral illnesses calicivirus and rhinotracheitis are probably the most common of the upper respiratory diseases in cats. Hopefully if this is the case your cat will regain her voice, too. I read of a case report of a cat with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) losing its voice. If the signs persist it probably wouldn't hurt to test for that (although it is probably an unlikely cause). I suspect that some cats just aren't speaking for willful reasons. They can be pretty stubborn at times. Since we can't ask, it is hard to be sure of this.

I know that wasn't much help. Your vet can check for the respiratory diseases, FIV and feline leukemia viruses if there persists.

Mike Richards, DVM"

If your vet has checked her through and gave her a clean bill of health, then maybe it could be she just doesn't want to talk yet. Losing two of her companions will affect her. Show her extra love and attention This will help. If you have noticed signs of a cold, sneezing and such, then this most likely is the cause of her problem. Double check with your vet. Good luck.

Ciao, Karen