What can cause a cat to lose its voice? Or make it higher pitched/squeaky?

My cat is ten, and he’s healthy, but his meow is really strange now. It’s always changing. It’s raspy and it sometimes cuts out or is incomplete, like you said. I don’t think it’s anything bad though, it’s been like this for the past year or so. It’s funny, actually, we laugh about how retarded his meow is.

@deni My cat is only about five, so it’s not her age. She’s too young for that, so it’s definitely something else. And it literally happened over night, it wasn’t anything gradual.

I had some parts of my floors sanded recently. In spite of all the vacuuming, sawdust was everywhere. Both Milo and I had sneezing fits for several days. He hasn’t had them before or since.

Smoking and whiskey.

@(and wild, wild women?)

@gailcalled Don’t be silly. What do cats care about wild, wild women?

Milo loves me. (He presented mouse #31 today.)

yeah, like you’re wild

I’m pretty sure Milo wouldn’t turn up his nose at a fine looking wild, wild lady cat who might happen along (even tho he probably wouldn’t be able to actually DO ANYTHING about as presumably he’s been snipped.)

But you never can be sure with whom he’s keeping company on his little outings, can you?

BTW. Has anyone else heard of a cute little folk ditty called “Don Gato” in which he falls off a roof looking at a sweet lady cat, breaks multipl bones but still has a happy ending??

I can’t get the tune out of my head.

@pdworkin Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?

I have some definite, pear-shaped ideas, my little chickadee

Of course she’s wild….she’s been officailly Milo’s SO since 4/19/09. :)

If I were you, @DrasticDreamer, and I were certain that this was really abnormal for the cat and not simply an extension of the attention-getting piteous-whimper end of her repertoire, I would at least call the vet and ask. Is she eating all right?

@pdworkin: Not pears but grapes for me, please, preferably in Philadelphia.

@DrasticDreamer

It is entirely possible that this is the first indication of an upper respiratory infection so getting the jump on it is best as far as medication.

And after that, it just runs it’s course so other than the initial vet eval. there’s not much more to do.

How is her energy level? Is she sleeping more than usual?

( I am aware that’s a difficult thing to estimate for a cat as most of them spent 90 percent of their time sleeping anyway)

:)

that happened to my cat, but it was easily explained. I moved, and she meowed and howled (I call it meowling) the entire drive nonstop, and it was a good hour trip at least. Her voice has never been the same since. I don’t even remember what she sounded like before the move.

I hope you find an explanation… worrying about a pet really sucks.

My friend just adopted gentle and sweet and docile Max, except for the non-top caterwauling. He vocalizes more than any cat I have known but keeps the volume steady and has no vocal chord problems yet.

@Jeruba Yeah, she’s eating the same as always.

@Buttonstc She’s not sleeping any more than usual, either.

There are really no signs that anything else is wrong, but I’m definitely calling the vet tomorrow, just to be on the safe side. It’s been hot and dry the last couple of days, when it had been raining and pretty humid, so maybe her throat is just dry? I made sure she drank some water though, and it didn’t seem to help. Blah. Thanks for trying to help, guys.

Aw, I’m not sure :( That happened to my cat, but she was very old (about 17 years old) so it wasn’t unusual to us that her voice became scratchy. Hopefully the vet can shed some light on it.

Cats occasionally try out new meows, that they sometimes learned from other cats, or birds in the backyard.

I’ve observed this many times. There’s most likely nothing wrong with your cat.

@Kraigmo I believe you, about the meows. But her voice is cutting out – just like a person’s would, if they had a pretty bad cold or something similar.

@DrasticDreamer I could be wrong, but I think I know what you mean. Like a choppy meow that sounds like it struggled to come out. Its good your worried, that keeps you observant. The lack of other symptoms show she’s probably perfectly healthy.

@Kraigmo Yeah, I hope you’re right. I’m gonna call the vet today and see what they have to say. I’ll let people know, just so no one is left hanging.

Oddly enough, this happened to one of our dogs. He seemed otherwise quite healthy, but the vet discovered that he had bronchitis. I, too, would wonder if your cat is just starting a respiratory infection of some sort. It wouldn’t hurt to go to the vet.

Okay its a few days later, and I have a prediction:

-A kitty with health and a $65 vet bill

(I sure hope the kitty is indeed fine)

She actually has an appointment for Thursday, because now she can’t meow at all. I hope you’re right and I’m wrong, though. I’ll keep you posted.

Kitty laryngitis?

What was the problem with kitty? It’s about a week later that I’m writing this. Just wondering.

I’m sorry, I completely forgot to update. It turns out she has a case of kitty laryngitis. Which is finally getting better – she started getting her voice back yesterday.

@DrasticDreamer Poor kitty! Glad it’s not something more serious though.

Wow. I didn’t even know there was such a thing. I mean, people usually get laryngitis by straining or over-using their voice. I would tend to think animals are smarter than that.

That’s why I was thinking it was more likely a resp. infection. However, for your and your kitty’s sake, I’m glad I was wrong.

I guess she’ll learn not to be yakking so much :D

MIlo here: Maybe its time to cut off her cell phone service.

Good one :D

If your cat had thumbs she could have saved her voice by texting.