Aspriation pneumonia, how likely is it?

I had a bad time pilling my cat tonight. I got the pill in, and squirted in water after to make sure it went down (it's gotten stuck before). She foamed up more than normal, so I squirted in more water to try to rinse everything out. Then she vomited on me. When I nabbed her to repill her, her meow kind of scratchy. Should I worry about having got water in her lungs? Or do cats normally sound hoarse after vomiting? How quickly does aspiration pneumonia develop? And what should I watch out for? Today was the last day of antibiotics, I really hope she doesn't get a new reason to get pilled.

Normally I coat the pills in butter and they slide right down, but she was so comfortable on my lap I didn't want to disturb her by knocking her off my lap and hunting her down to pill her. And then I ended up having to disturb her even more. My cat is probably going to start hating me soon....

Don't beat yourself up. There's no way your girl will start hating you. She knows you're trying to help.

My guess is that the scratchy meow was simply from the pilling/vomiting. Think how it feels if a pill gets stuck or catches on the way down, and how you feel if a sip of water goes down the wrong way. The strong likelihood is that that's all that's happened here.

The biggest thing I'd think you'd see in aspiration pneumonia is laboured breathing. Normally I'd say other signs of being unwell (lethargy, lack of appetite etc), but that won't help you much here.

Try not to worry.

Yeah, and she normally kind of wheezes, too, so I don't know if I'd notice the difference. Later that night her meows started sounding normal again, at least. (I'm never forgetting the butter again!)

Has she seen a vet for the wheezing?

No, she's had it all her life so I never really worried about it. I've taken her in about four times in the past couple weeks for other issues and never think to mention her wheeze. Maybe I will next time.... It's only really when she's relaxed and sleeping, so I don't know if a vet would even be able to notice it during a checkup. There's this little "click" at the same point in each of her breaths.

How old is your cat? A click when breathing is normally indicative of pneumonia. A vet should be able to hear this click through a stethoscope when he listens to her breathing. I think it would be wise to get it checked out.

She's 12, and it's been going on for at least half that time. I really think it's allergies or asthma, or it's a weird pre-purr. She has a really quiet meow (and just looks at me and mouths "meow" at me sometimes), and a really minimal, quiet purr to go along with it. The click breathing is when a normal cat would probably be purring, and sometimes it develops into a full purr. No vet I've taken her to has ever noticed anything wrong with her breathing. (There have been at least seven throughout her life.)