Treat this seriously and act now: few things a cat swallows are as dangerous as string. A length of string, ribbon, tinsel, or thread can become a 'linear foreign body': one end lodges (under the tongue or in the stomach) while the intestine keeps trying to move the rest along, so the gut bunches up and the string can saw through the intestinal wall — a life-threatening emergency that usually needs surgery. The single most important rule: if you can see string at the mouth or the rear end, do not pull it. Pulling can tear the intestine. Get your cat to a veterinarian promptly — the same day, and immediately if there are any symptoms.
What Happens Next and What to Watch For
Call the vet as soon as you know or strongly suspect string was swallowed, even if your cat seems fine; early on, a vet may be able to retrieve it far more simply than after it has travelled and bunched the gut. Watch like a hawk for the danger signs over the following days: vomiting, loss of appetite, hiding, lethargy, a painful or tense belly, drooling, straining, or no stool — any of these means an emergency visit, not another day of watching. Check under the tongue gently if your cat allows it (string often wraps there), and keep the evidence: what kind of string, roughly how long, and when it was eaten are exactly what the vet needs to hear. Then audit the home: sewing kits, gift ribbon, tinsel, hair ties, and string toys without supervision are how this happens, and wand toys live in a drawer between play sessions in a cat-safe home.
Working With Your Vet on a String Case
What the clinic needs from you is a precise account, not a general worry. Say what the material was — wool, ribbon, tinsel, elastic — and estimate its length as honestly as you can, because a few centimetres of thread and a metre of ribbon are different problems. Give the time it was eaten, or the window in which it could have been, and list anything you have seen since: retching without producing anything, a meal refused, a visit to the litter tray that produced no stool. A veterinarian makes the diagnosis and decides on imaging or surgery; your observations, recorded as they happened, are what let that judgement be made quickly.
String swallowing plus any vomiting, appetite loss, lethargy, or belly pain is an emergency — and string visible at either end is never pulled; the cat goes to the vet as it is.
The Record to Keep After This Scare
For this incident, note the day and hour, the type and estimated length of string, each symptom with the time it appeared, and what the vet found and did. Over the following days, add appetite, water intake, stools, and energy in a line or two a day, because a linear foreign body can declare itself slowly and a written sequence shows deterioration that a hopeful memory smooths over. If she is sent home to be monitored, that record is your early-warning system: a second day of falling appetite on paper is a reason to return, not to wait.
Put that incident record — type of string, estimated length, timing and symptoms — into her KinsLe Pet Passport, where dates, notes and vet history stay together in one portable packet for whichever vet sees her next.