Cats and tinsel: How do you know if your cat has a blockage?

My best friend just got a new kitten this spring, and she’s now a feisty teenage cat, getting into all sorts of trouble. She’s had a cat before, but it was always very passive, and so tinsel on the tree was never a second thought; the cat never went near the tree at all.

Now though, while doing some “cat research”, she discovered how dangerous tinsel can be for cats, and is paranoid.

What kind of symptoms would the cat display, and about how long after the cat ate the tinsel would it likely take to notice said symptoms?

Her cat isn’t exhibiting any strange behavior, and she hasn’t seen tinsel in the litterbox, but I thought I’d try to give her some better info than what she’s been finding on message boards and whatnot almost always full of histrionics and dramatic, overblown accounts, causing more paranoia.