Cat ate a cotton ball

Question
Hi Carol!  Thank you for taking my question.  
My family and I recently adopted an 8 wk old kitten.
She has quickly become the "princess" of our home.  We have fallen in love with this little kitty.  She is very active and playful and inquisitive.  My daughter was making crafts using cotton balls over the weekend and last night it became apparent that the kitty had eaten one of them.  She passed the cotton ball and seems to feel ok.  She is eating and playful, maybe a tad less than before the cotton ball though.  I just wondered if you had ever experienced anything like this and if there is anything I need to look for to be sure she is ok.

Thank you!
Amanda

Answer
Hello Amanda.

The kitty (and you) are lucky if she passed the cotton ball. She should be fine.

Watch for diarrhea or vomiting (natures way of tryig to expel a foreign object that was ingested), tender abdomen, not wanting to eat, and lethargy. Those could be signs that she swallowed something else and has a possible blockage in the small or large intestine.

But hopefully the one cotton ball was it. She might be a tad less playful because her tummy is sore from passing the cotton ball.

Keep an eye on her AND ktten proof your house. Plastic bags, string, etc. can be deadly for playful and curious kittens. Figure anything mouth size can be swallowed.

I had one that loved his little furry toy mice. He would play with them, turning on his back. Then GULP! he would swallow it. I was lucky that nothing serious happened, and he too passed them, but after that no more toy mice!

Carol