raspy meow

Hi I have a cat. He is a nutered male 7 years old. And I love him to death. He is a struck indoor cat. About two days ago he tried to meow at me and it came out all raspy. Now he is eating normal drinking normal. And he is going to the bathroom fine. He doesn't have any discharge from his nose or eyes and he hasn't been coughing. The onlything is I got a puppy about 3 weeks ago and the puppy brought fleas.so my cat has some "balding" hairloss spots on his back near his tail. But he has had fleas before and that's always what happens. So I have giving him a bath and frontline. So they are slowly going away. But I'm worried I love him so much I don't know if I should be really worried or not. Advice would b amazing

Hi there,

It's probably a good idea to get him to the vet just for a checkup. My kitty had this same thing (raspy meow) happen to him a few weeks ago, and it turned out he had a combination of allergic rhinitis and an secondary upper respiratory infection that needed antibiotics. He wasn't sneezing or coughing either, just had the raspy meow, but evidently the vet saw something I didn't.

Now... what is the balding from? Is he having an allergic reaction to the fleas that is making the hair fall out? Or does he bite and scratch the areas badly enough that his hair falls out? Because hair falling out is NOT a normal thing when a cat has fleas. If you are bathing him with a flea shampoo, please stop immediately. These products are rarely safe for cats and can actually be causing some of those symptoms. You can still bathe him, just use Dawn dish soap. It works just fine on the fleas.

Also, when you take him to the vet, ask for some Revolution brand flea drops. I've found them to be leaps and bounds better than Frontline or Advantage, and even though you can only get them from a vet, they aren't any more expensive where I live.

Finally... welcome to TCS!! Good luck and keep us updated!

Thanks for the advice. And he scratches and licks till his hair falls out. And the bath thing I give him a bath in dawn. It wont harm cats.