My cat swallowed thread/ribbon. How long until it passes safely?

This is somewhat concerning, because it has potential to get stuck in her intestines. If she ate it in the past two hours, then it can be retrieved by a veterinarian. Otherwise, you would just have to wait and observe for signs of an obstruction. Signs of obstruction include frequent vomiting, acting painful/ depressed and inability to defecate. If you notice this, then she needs to be taken to the vet right away. The fabric should be passed within the next 3-5 days if all goes well. I hope that helps and all is well with Ocean.

A small piece should be able to pass sometime in the next 12-36 hours. Monitor for lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite or abdominal pain. These are symptoms that should be addressed by your veterinarian.

Hello. It is difficult to say if & when the floss may pass. In general, things transit the gut of dogs in about 18 hours, but floss can potentially get hung up somewhere. If this just happened, you vet may be able to retrieve the floss with an endoscope. If it has been many hours, I would feed your dog 2 pieces of bread slathered with Vaseline. Feed him a piece at a time. This will bulk up & lubricate any ingesta hopefully moving the floss along. In total, just monitor him over the next 3-5 days for any signs of inappetence, bloating, vomiting or belly pain. Hope all is well in the end & thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Tape should not cause a problem, and it should pass in time. To be safe, monitor him for vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia, and/or lethargy. If you see any of those signs, take him into the vet. Best of luck.

Hi there! It is very difficult to tell whether something will pass through the intestinal tract or if it will get stuck. Some big things will just miraculously pass, and some small things will manage to get stuck! That being said, 2 months is a very young age, and a tiny kitten is far more likely to get something stuck. There are a couple of things you an do at this point. One would be to bulk your boy's diet just a little bit to help add some fiber to his diet. This will help his intestines move a bit faster, and provide some cushioning for the earring itself. Because a stud earring has that sharp edge on it, a 1/8th slice of plain wheat bread given twice a day will help to wrap around that earring a bit easier than something like canned pumpkin or Metamucil might do. Look for the earring in his stools to make sure you see it come out. If he swallowed the earring really recently, if you take him into the vet right now, it's possible they may be able to retrieve it as well as ensure that it's not caused any undo irritation to his esophagus as it went down. If it has been over 30 minutes or so, it may be too late to try and get it back. It can take 24-48 hours before we can start to see signs of a blockage. You could head into the vet in roughly 24 hours to have an xray taken to try and track the progress of the earring as it moves through. The good news is that metal objects tend to show up really brightly on an xray, so they should be able to easily see it and guage how easily it is passing. The bad news is that if it is not passing, they will have to remove it surgically. If at any point your boy starts to vomit, stops eating/drinking, gets restless or seems painful, grows really lethargic, or is straining to have a bowel movement, he needs to go into a vet clinic immediately. Once an obstruction develops, it becomes an emergency and can be life-threatening if not treated immediately. Depending on what type of metal the earring is made from, some heavy metals can be toxic to animals. While they don't absorb the metal, or even break it down very well, if it sits in the stomach for a long period without passing, certain metals will gradually leech into their systems, leading to a metal poisoning. So if you're not seeing it pass in 24-48 hours if you choose to bulk, head into the clinic anyway, even if you are not seeing any of the above signs.

It is hard to say whether or not your kitten will be able to pass the nipple. It will mostly depend on how much he swallowed and how big the kitten is. If Sam starts vomiting, having diarrhea, or stops wanting to eat then I would begin to be concerned about a possible blockage. If he is acting normal just keep an eye on his stools to see if he has passed it yet. Good luck!

It can take up to 72 hours for the stuffing to pass, so I wouldn't be worried just yet. There are a couple of possibilities if you don't see any stuffing in Ella's feces: One, she didn't actually eat any. Two, it's moving very slowly through her GI tract. Three, it is stuck in her system. Keep monitoring her and her feces through the end of the week and she's acting normal, then I would suspect she didn't actually eat any of the stuffing. I would only be concerned if Ella stopped eating, become lethargic, and developed other symptoms such as diarrhea or constipation.