Croaky animal, we hear? (6)
I believe the answer is:
hoarse
'croaky' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'animal we hear?' is the wordplay.
'animal' becomes 'horse' (I've seen this before).
'we hear?' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'horse' sounds like 'HOARSE'.
(Other definitions for hoarse that I've seen before include "Of voice, sounding rough" , "(Of voice) rough/harsh" , "A horse with croaking voice" , "With a rough husky voiced" , "Croaky" .)