I live in Jakarta, Indonesia. The vets here are good people - the profession seems to attract individuals with good hearts - but realistically, they don’t have the training, or access to technology/drugs, that a vet in the US would have. So I turn to the wise minds of the Dope to help in the diagnosis of my cat.
A few months ago my 10-year-old spayed, hefty, female cat, who is one of those cats that NEVER shuts up - meow, meow, MEOW!!! - started to lose her voice. She also had a very small, insignificant scab on her throat, which healed within a few days.
When the reduced sound of her meow continued, I took her to the vet, who thought she had some sort of throat infection. I mentioned the scab and said I thought perhaps she had been bitten in the throat by the other cat (they occasionally fight a little, though nothing serious). The vet then postulated that if the other cat chomped on her throat, there had been a little damage to the inside of the throat as well as the outside, and this internal damaged spot had gotten infected.
I had my doubts, but administered the antibiotics I was given, and voila, the cat’s voice returned to full volume.
But a few weeks later it started to weaken again. (No external wound this time.) I returned to the vet and was given antibiotics again. Since they worked before, I gave them to the cat again as instructed.
This time, it didn’t work. But the cat seemed to feel okay, she just had a weaker voice.
Then we were away at Christmas time for about 2 and half weeks, during which the cat was cared for by household staff. When I returned, poor kitty had TOTALLY lost her voice. Plus, every now and then, she wheezes in that I’m-going-to-barf-a-hairball sort of way that we’ve all heard cats do, but she doesn’t barf - it is more as if she’s having trouble breathing around an obstruction in her throat.
She still purrs, in fact her purr seems to be louder than ever. Her appetite is fine. It’s difficult to say if her behavior has changed, as she has always been a supremely affectionate cat. Now she’s even more loving than ever, and snuggles under the covers with me at night, purring a lot - I can’t help but think she’s asking for help.
Today I returned to the vet and they took a series of x-rays. She has not lost weight and she did not have a fever. They did not know how to interpret the x-rays but said they could see a narrowing of her airway around her throat. Then they took a second set of x-rays and it is clear even to a layperson that there is an area of her airway, right around her throat, that is cloudy/blocked. (According to the vet, heart and lungs look normal.)
The vet says she doesn’t know what is going on and she is going to consult with colleagues, then get back to me. (There is a semi-decent animal hospital nearby; I assume she is going to show the x-rays to them.) At first, she prescribed a vasodilator, which I thought was weird, but before I had a chance to fill the prescription, she called and said “don’t do it - I’m really not sure what’s going on, and perhaps that medicine is not a good idea.”
Poor kitty. Any thoughts, Dopers?