Low potassium in cats causes painful muscle weakness and can precipitate kidney failure, requiring dietary management and supplementation to prevent recurrence in affected individuals.
Cats with severe hypokalemia experience a profoundly distressing physical state: unable to hold their head up, too weak to walk, with muscles cramping from every attempted movement. The ventroflexion posture - neck curled downward because the cat cannot hold its head up - is one of the most dramatic welfare indicators in feline medicine. Treatment with potassium supplementation produces rapid improvement in many cats. Prevention through appropriate dietary potassium and monitoring in at-risk cats (CKD, Burmese breed) avoids the acute welfare crisis of severe hypokalemia.