Any vets about? Or people who know about cats swallowing…

[FelicityBeedle]

Cat has chlamydia (most likely) and needs 21 days of antibiotics, I give him all his tick and flea meds by tablet because the spot on makes him bald so the tablets aren’t an issue. I normally hold him, pop it in his mouth blow on his nose and rub his throat et voila.
This time the vet said to give him a little water from a syringe after, because the tablets can burn the throat if they get stuck.

However my DP has just realised that by covering the tablets in LickELix he’ll happily eat them with no intervention needed (yet cheese or similar he always spits the tablet out???). Do I still need to force water down him if he’s swallowing naturally? Or is a natural swallow unlikely to get stuck.

Don’t want to restrain him for no good reason

No absolutely don't force water down him if he's taking them on his own. My parents cat has one of those syringes and I thought I'd made him aspirate. I have one that you don't need water for and it was never a problem. My cat had 4 pills at once.

These are doxycycline and I think quite acidic (or maybe basic) hence the worry. It’s not one of those syringe catapult things that fires the tablet into them, just a normal syringe to pop a bit of water in his mouth

We get cat milk for our kitty and mix a little water with it. She loves it and drinks it straight away so you could try that.

Dh has doxy every day and they can burn if they get stuck, it’s happened to him.

Would the cat drink cooked chicken juices after each pill?

small amount of soft food? That will clean the throat