Three days ago my cat stopped eating after vomiting. After watching
her behavior which seemed to indicate that she was constipated, I
finally took her to the vet this morning. Turns out she had a bowel
obstruction (not megacolon, just a fecal ball that she just couldn't
pass). The vet removed it manually (with anesthesia) since it wouldn't
pass with an enema. This whole time she's still been drinking water,
and the doctor said there's no signs of liver disease from the lack of
eating (yellowing eyes, swollen liver, etc).

I was just wondering, she's been home now for half a day (about 8
hours) and she still hasn't eaten anything. When should I start to
worry and/or manually try to feed her? She still drinks, but isn't
even enticed by her favorite foods. The vet told me she might be
groggy from the anesthesia and/or still sensitive around her bowels/
butt area for a while, but I forgot to ask how long that means she
might not be interested in eating.

Also, after leaving the vet, I began to wonder how he was sure that
the fecal ball (already past the pelvic bone) was the problem...what
if there is something wrong with her colon that she couldn't push it
out, or something like that? What if the fecal matter was just in her
colon but doesn't have anything to do with anything - or does it not
usually stay there for any lengthy amount of time? Her temperature was
normal and she doesn't show any other obvious symptoms. And they did
bloodwork, but that won't come back until tomorrow, and the vet
expects that to be normal.

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks.