FWIW, my husband plays out 6-7 nights per week and when his throat bothers him he rests it, uses Ricola lozenges, and gargles with/drinks Jack Daniels. Works for him
I have a flute performance tomorrow playing two songs, one of which doesn’t allow for much breathing time. Since I don’t have time to breathe, I don’t have time to swallow either, so this has happened to me when I practice and I’m hoping it won’t happen tomorrow. Nothing much you can do to help it as far as I know except, er, swallow when you get a chance. And just pretend it’s not happening if it does. Hard, I know, when you’re just standing there needing to cough, but there isn’t much else for it.
I’ve never understood the “no whispering” thing, which a number of people here and elsewhere have said. When you think about it, whispering is no harder on the voice than breathing. Air flows through your larynx and past your vocal folds either way. (Though some linguistic purists define a “true” whisper to involve a necessary contraction of the glottis, in popular usage this is not so.)
I’ve had no trouble with whispering when my voice isn’t well. It is much better than talking (contrary to what everyone has said), since your vocal folds are not engaged in any strain, tension, or vibration. Turbulence in the mouth provides sufficent sound.
The only problem is that all of your voiced consonants become unvoiced, but even then there is no difficulty of comprehension.
According to a doctor writing for Scientific American, that’s not correct.
http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?articleID=00005604-9A1E-1CE2-93F6809EC5880000
SA: So it’s bad to whisper if you have laryngitis?
RG: Whispering is one of the worst things you can do because it’s like yelling. It strains, or pulls, on the vocal chords. Instead you want to try to take a deep breath and then exhale as you talk. Try to relax your voice and not strain it.