Apple Crunching noise with mouth movements

Hi I have a Shorthair, Female, Spayed, 7 maybe 8 years old (rescued at ~3, amputee), eats Purina Pro Plan, up to date on vaccines, no current medications, reluctance to eat started a few months ago, bloodwork was normal, round of amoxicillin and clindamycin with no success. She is presenting with odd mouth movements- almost like gagging ‐ with no visual obstruction and the noise sounds like apple crunching. Any insight?

Hello - yes, indeed.  There is a list of things that could be causing this, ranging from dental disease to arthritis or a fractured or dislocated jaw, to emphysema (that's gas) under the skin.  Any of these would be serious and of course, pain is more difficult to spot in the cat than in the dog or the human; showing pain simply didn't provide as much of an evolutionary advantage for cats.  Another possibility would be gagging to vomit - cats do this without producing anything quite commonly - although the sound confuses me if this were to be the case; perhaps it might be likely in the event of a foreign body.  I am not sure why antibiotics were given from your description; it would be unusual unless a bacterial cause was deemed to be likely.  Your vet may have a good reason for it. Usually if an animal does not respond to treatment or if the symptoms are getting worse, a revisit would be in order.

Hello - yes, indeed.  There is a list of things that could be causing this, ranging from dental disease to arthritis or a fractured or dislocated jaw, to emphysema (that's gas) under the skin.  Any of these would be serious and of course, pain is more difficult to spot in the cat than in the dog or the human; showing pain simply didn't provide as much of an evolutionary advantage for cats.  Another possibility would be gagging to vomit - cats do this without producing anything quite commonly - although the sound confuses me if this were to be the case; perhaps it might be likely in the event of a foreign body.  I am not sure why antibiotics were given from your description; it would be unusual unless a bacterial cause was deemed to be likely.  Your vet may have a good reason for it. Usually if an animal does not respond to treatment or if the symptoms are getting worse, a revisit would be in order.