We have a 2 year old Birman (female) who has always be a very excitable and playful cat. She is a very placid personality and caring animal. Since we have taken on a new Main Coon kitten (male) 13 weeks old the Birman has lost all her playfulness. She wont eat, wont go to the toilet and is generally really unhappy.
She has also developed a problem with her throat as she cant meow properly??

Can anyone advise if this is a common problem when you introducing a new cat to a family? I hope someone can help or give some advice.

Hi welcome to the forum. Are you sure this is because of your new kitten.It sounds to me as though there is possibly something wrong with your BirmanNot eating and not going to the toilet and loss of voice sounds alarm bells to me and I think you should be hot footing it to the vet.How long have you had this new kitten.Did symptoms start as soon as the new kitten arrived.Have you introduced them slowly ,keeping the kitten in a different room and only letting them have controlled meetings.I dont have experience of introducing new kittens but in this case I would be taking the adult to the vet.

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I agree with Buffie.
The new introduction is provably a red herring, I would get her to the vet.

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Lauren

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Hello, thank you for your reply. I have taken the Birman to the vet this week as we thought this was a problem and wasn't very normal. I found it strange that the vet didn't seem to be that worried about her. I am wondering if she might have a cold from the kitten?

I agree with the vet advice, but just wanted to say, when I introduced a new kitten to my cat, she lost her meow for a couple of days, which I think was due to her hissing and growling so much at the kitten. She got over it soon enough though. But definitely take a trip to the vets and see what they say.

Apart from the lack of voice did the vet not seem concerned that your cat had stopped peeing ,pooing.That to me is not normal,Is this still a problem?

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Interesting it sounds familiar as our Birman was hissing and meowing a lot before she lost her voice. Good news is that she went to the toilet for the first time today, which is a huge relief. Going to take her to the vet on Monday morning. Thank you all for your help and advice.