I had a ghastly flu virus a couple of years ago that quickly went down to my throat and vocal cords, making them behave very strangely indeed.
A couple of my students had exactly the same reaction from the same virus, and it took more than a year to slowly go away. Over the course of this time, I did a lot of research on the subject and found out the following info:
Having tried everything (which I’ll list below in order of efficacy), I found that gargling with raw aloe vera juice (no additives, no pulp) was the answer. The problem cleared up in a matter of weeks. I have another friend who strained his vocal cords who also tried doing this and it seemed to also clear up the problem in the same amount of time. This is my only corroborating evidence so far, however:) Trader Joe’s brand was the one that did the trick.
Next were: Gargling with warm sea salt, preferably rock salt. Or steaming with a few drops of eucalyptus oil in the water before hand, then gargling with the salt, and doing this twice a day. This worked very well (plus my face was really clean), except that I’d find any excuse not to do it, and in the end realized it was never going to happen on a regular basis.
Next came Herbs etc “Singers professional strength” throat spray, which I found on Amazon.. This didn’t help my particular issue, but it did feel very nice on the chords and that it was doing the voice generally a lot of good.
After that came gargling with bee propolis and the essential oil myrrh, recommended by a friend. I found the propolis a lot more palatable than the myrrh which, although it felt like it was helping, I phased out in the end because of the taste. Another option, which I think I’d now opt for, is to gargle with the tincture. Mixes well with water and feels a lot smoother on the cords.
As a last, last, last resort I would suggest using a throat spray such as Chloraseptic.
This would only be feasible, I think, if you have no other recourse and have very little voice. For example, you’ve a really important gig, an extremely hoarse voice and you don’t know where else to turn. Throat sprays such as this relax the vocal cords so we can sing, but often at the expense of the cords. Because it numbs that area so efficiently, we over-sing and can cause damage. Very rarely permanent (I would hope), but you’d be hoarse and sore for a few days. So if you’ve two gigs in a row, it might be ill advised since it’ll sound twice as bad the next day. To abuse the voice in this way on a regular basis is a very bad idea, since regular misuse of the voice can lead to nodes on the cords, which you really don’t want. The vocal cords are extremely tough and resilient, and bounce back from all kinds of misuse, but there’s a limit as in all things.