My new cat can't meow

Hi all I am new to the group and am pleased to have found you. In May I adopted a 6 year old kitty named Remy. I noticed shortly after he came to us that he moves his mouth as though he was meowing all the time but there is no sound. My vet doesn't seem to think anything of it. Remy also has smelly gooey , black gunk in his ears. He shakes his head a lot. I am wondering if these 2 things are linked. In May the vet said he didn't think there were mites but he was going to treat him for them just in case I a follow up he said there were definitely no mites. He said some cats just have really waxy ears. I can't help but be concerned. None of the other cats I have had had ears like this and they could all meow.Any advice appreciated. 

My advice would be to try another vet.  No cat should have smelly, gooey, black gunk in their ears!  There are other things than mites that can cause this, like a yeast infection.

And some cats just don't meow.  My first cat, when I was a child, didn't.  He would look at me and 'mouth' a meow if I talked to him.  Funny thing was that after a while I would just go up to him and 'mouth' some words to him and and would do it back to me.  It was very sweet.

But if your vet thinks horrible stuff in ears is OK, he/she may be wrong about the meowing, too. 

to Remy.  Bunged up ears are no fun.

I agree w/ Mani on the ear & meowing thing. I would look for another vet when it comes to the ear gunk...that's not normal. But I don't think u have anything to worry bout when it comes to the meows. I had a cat that did the same thing, then eventually when he got older he found his voice & used it all the time. Just give it some time & I'm sure the meowing will come[emoji]128570[/emoji]

I agree with earlier posts from Bebe28 and Mani, I would look for another vet opinion, ear gunk isn't normal and neither is a lot of head shaking (though my boy does have a habit of shaking his head so hard his ears rattle and he falls over - no idea why!).  

Some cats are not talkative and that 'mouthed' meow is quite a normal behaviour, in fact cat lover and author Paul Gallico published a lovely book called 'The Silent Miaow' back in 1964 - still available today I believe! It devotes a whole section to this powerful means of communication. It's a lovely book if you can find a copy. It's full title is 'The Silent Miaow - a manual for kittens, strays & homeless cats'. The copy I have was published by Pan and is a 1987 edition.

Thank you everyone. You have confirmed what I thought about the ears. Time for a new vet. I appreciate your reassurance about Remy's lack of meowing. I was worried. I lost a cat to pancreatitis and stomach cancer in March and my dog died of a stroke in June so I worry a lot.
 

Maureen Bradley said:

 I was worried. I lost a cat to pancreatitis and stomach cancer in March and my dog died of a stroke in June so I worry a lot.
 

Click to expand...

  We do worry so much more when we have lost, don't we.

Let us know how you get on.

Okay the Vet prescribed Remy Quadritop Ointment. This is an anti-fungal anti-bacterial. Tests show no mites.If this doesn't work we will try and off label usage for another drug (I don't remember the name) that is usually for dogs. The vet said he used it on another cat whose ears were far worse than Remy's and had amazing results that did last. I chose to go this route because the potential side effects of the off label drug were not desirable and I don't want to do that unless I have to. We'll see.

Good for you making sure your furbaby was being looked after properly by the vet.  I hope the ointment works well and Remy feels more comfortable nice and quickly (with no need to try anything that has nasty side effects). 

Good news! 

Keep us posted

The "dog medicine" your vet was referring to is probably Momentamax. My kitties have been on it, Sophie in particular. She had yeast in her ears, and it cleared right up! I've also given the left-overs to my other kitties when they had the same problem. If nothing is MOVING in the ears, it's not mites. Yeast is pretty common.