Cat lost his voice

A few days ago we noticed our 4 year old cat started having a hoarse sounding meow. We thought it would go away on it’s own but it didn’t and he also starting gagging without throwing up so we ended up taking him to the emergency vet yesterday. Of note, we recently adopted a kitten about 2 weeks ago.

They ran blood tests and an xray without any abnormalities. They thought it was some viral upper respiratory infection from the kitten and discharged him on a course of steroids for presumed airway inflammation.

Has this happened to anyone else’s cats? His meow is completely different. He otherwise seems to be acting normally. He’s eating, playing, using the litter box normally. He doesn’t have any respiratory symptoms so I’m just not as convinced it’s a respiratory infection.

Thanks in advance!