My Cats Lost Their Meow
We got a new kitten recently. He wasn’t planned. He came with my sister who just moved in this past May. Actually, he came after, (we already have two girlies). Well, the two girls, one a senior turning 10 this year, and another who is 5, didn’t react well to a new baby boy. Didn’t matter how cute he was, my senior kitty Pip tried to stay hidden while Maggie (aka Mags MaGoo) shrugged deeply into her mean kitty/bully cat mantle and proceeded to hiss and growl at the baby to make sure he knew who the boss was.
Mags became deeply stressed about the new furbaby who, despite all her growls and hisses, insisted on trying to follow her everywhere. He would not be put off.
“You’re gonna luvvvvvvvvv me, Maggie! Are you my mom?” he seemed to say.
Maggie remained skeptical and after two weeks, got quite sick with a bad bladder infection. I had to whisk her off to the veterinary ER in the middle of the night. Poor baby was puking and leaking all over the house, and miserable. I was beyond worried. Darn near frantic.
Almost $700 later, she had antibiotics and nausea medication, and a recommendation from the Vet. Doc to plug in some Feliway (touted to help calm irritated kitties via a synthetic pheromone detectable only by cats and deemed harmless).
Okay.
I got said plug in and that, along with the antibiotics and nausea medication, seemed to have Maggie on the road to recovery. Until…
She developed an upper respiratory infection (her first ever) picked up from her visit to the pet hospital. Dangit! My poor cat!
Well, she did have antibiotics onboard already, they said. If the mucous turns goopy, bring her back. Otherwise, it should pass. Another week of misery, and it did pass…to the new kitten. Poor Taavi! Then to Pippy. Poor Pip!
Oy!
We came to the end of the Feliway (the plug ins last 30 days), and we plugged in another. Pip and Maggie trudged around like they were drugged. Maggie would occasionally let out a meow that sounded like she’d been smoking twenty years, and to my utter surprise, my chatty girl Pip stopped meowing altogether. Instead, she would gag unproductively and pass a whisper that seemed like it wanted to be a meow, but fell far short.
The upper respiratory infections passed, and all were eating, drinking, and playing normally again. The girls were slowly accepting the new baby boy, but the meows were gone! I couldn’t figure out why. Did the girls have laryngitis? The respiratory problem was over. Could laryngitis linger this long?
I began seeking answers. I tried looking up online if Feliway could cause laryngitis or have toxic effects. I found nothing to show that it did…at first. We continued on another few days hoping the meows would come back. I missed Pip’s chatter.
She seemed to have taken a vow of silence. The cough/gag continued.
Then I typed in, “Can Feliway cause laryngitis in cats?” That’s when I ran across a heretofore hidden bit of information that yes, it can, indeed, cause irritation to some cats in their eyes, skin, and throats. It isn’t common, but it can happen. For some reason, Feliway products didn’t want me to know this because it was sure hard to find!
Immediately, I unplugged the Feliway and tossed it out. It took 24 hours to get it completely out of the house, even with leaving the patio door open. Forty-eight hours later, Pip passed me in the hallway and meowed. It was faint and scratchy, but she meowed!
Maggie, too, found her way back to a meow that didn’t sound like she was one of Marge Simpson’s chain-smoking sisters.
We are on the road to recovery now with two sweet girl kitties who’ve found their voices once again.
Oh, and they seem to have accepted that Taavi is here to stay. Only half-hearted hisses and swats now. Plus, I’ve caught them playing.
Hoping this article helps other cat parents know that although Feliway generally doesn’t cause issues, is deemed safe for cats, it still can, in some cases, cause eye, skin, and throat irritation. So, if your cat stops meowing, is gagging, scratching their skin a lot, eyes are tearing up, Feliway may not be working for them. Throw that plug in away.