From time to time, perhaps every couple of months I have had consultations about cats which have lost their meow. Sitting on my consulting room table would be a very displeased very large butch tom cat who now has now developed the most effeminate of meows or no meow at all. Thankfully the chances of this being something serious would be slim and most turned out to be some form of minor throat / laryngitis type infection.
While I cannot diagnose individual cases over the Internet I can tell you that only a tiny percentage of them turned out to be anything sinister, the majority as I say I put down to some kind of throat infection although very often symptoms were not present other than the loss of voice. Sometimes I put these cats on a course of antibiotics such as clavamox or amoxycillin and in other cases I just advised the owners to do nothing and sit things out. Usually this was an infectious disease of some kind but I sometimes saw such cats after they had been in the cattery for a week or so and they had more than likley lost their voice because of non stop howling in the strange environment. There would of course be other very serious but thankfully very rare causes of this symptom such as cancer of the larynx.
If your cat has just developed an altered meow or lost his or her meow altogether but is otherwise bright alert and eating then I think you would be taking very little risk in just sitting things out for a week to see if the meow will return without treatment as this is very possible. Of course if your cat is showing any other symptom as well such as lack of appetite or lethargy then you should have the cat checked over by your vet at the first opportunity. And if the meow is not back after a week then you should have your cat checked over just to be on the safe side.
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