Food Etc Going Down 'the Wrong Way'

[AndiFlatland]

We all know what it;s like when we eat or drink something which goes down 'the wrong way' - we end up coughing and sneezing and spluttering and giving the throat a very painful scrubbing, until all the offending material is ejected from the windpipe.
But what about animals? I have to give my cat regular tablets, two twice a day. This is never an easy task, but we have it down to a fairly fine art, where I put her through an old sweatshirt so that only her head is sticking out from the neck of the garment, then wrap the sleeves round her neck so that she can't get her paws out and lacerate my hands while I'm administering the tablets. I then cup her head from behind, gently tip it back so that it's pointing upwards, prise her jaws apart, and drop the tablets into her mouth. Usually they drop straight down to the back of the mouth, and she swallows them with little problem.
But I've always wondered, what would happen if the tablets went down 'the wrong way'? We've never had a problem yet - but what if they went into her windpipe rather than into her aesophagus? Could she choke? Or do cats and other animals have a different structure to their throats to humans, that would not allow this to happen?

[Old_Geezer]

I doubt they're any different.
Do you know the Heimlich maneuver ?

[wolf63]

do make sure that they are not spat out the moment you let her go?

I drill tiny holes in Dreamies and put a powdered pill into the hole. Then I plug the tiny hole with some of this stuff https://www.petdrugsonline.co.uk/easy-pill-cat-putty The putty is supposed to be used to wrap a pill in but my cat won't fall for that.

[AndiFlatland]

It does happen occasionally that she spits the tablet out - but I'm always aware that she's done that, as I watch for the little contraction of the outside of the throat that means she's swallowed. In any case, I keep her mouth open for a while, and watch to see any evidence of the tablet remaining in her mouth or under the tongue. Anyway, she's actually very good - as I'm about to feed her, she always jumps up on a cardboard box which puts her at about the height of my waist, and turns round to face the right way for the process to happen.
The Heimlich manoeuvre? Yes, I'm aware of that, as I've seen it demonstrated. But I'm not sure how well that would work with a small, fragile creature like a cat. Pardon the pun, but it could be catastrophic... Guess I'd give it a go if I really had to.
The Dreamies option with the hole-drilling and pussy putty sounds awfully fiddly - and anyway, crushing the tablets is not allowed. The advice of the vet was that they have to do down whole, as the tablets are designed to have a timed release of the contents, which won't work if the tablets are powdered or broken up.
Thanks for the answers!