
My 7 week old kitten is hoarse
Hello everyone,
I could really use some advice about a little kitten we recently took in from outside. He’s about 7 weeks old and hasn’t received any vaccinations yet.
We’ve noticed that he’s quite hoarse. During the day he was rather lethargic and slept a lot, but late in the evening he suddenly had a huge burst of energy and played very actively for over an hour.
As for eating, he’s a bit picky and is eating less than usual, but he’s drinking really well. Around 9:30 PM he drank plain water on his own, and after playing he also drank a good amount of kitten milk.
There was one incident where he gagged immediately after meowing, but other than that he hasn’t been gagging or vomiting at all.
Last night we had a fan running in the room. It wasn’t blowing directly at the kitten, but we’re wondering if the airflow could have dried out or irritated his throat and vocal cords. Another thought we had is that it may have been a brief episode of reflux because his stomach was full of milk and the meowing triggered a gag reflex.
We’re going to monitor him closely over the weekend. As long as he continues drinking well, eating, and remains stable, we’d like to wait until Monday morning to see our regular veterinarian instead of going to the emergency clinic and paying the much higher emergency fees. Of course, if his condition gets worse at any point, we’ll take him to the emergency clinic immediately.
What do you think? Does this sound more like throat irritation from the airflow, or could it be the beginning of an upper respiratory infection (cat flu)? Has anyone experienced something similar with such a young, unvaccinated kitten?
Thank you very much for any advice!