Gizmo is hospitalized

For those of you who don’t know, Gizmo is a 3 year old healthy cat. Never has had any health issues.

I’m hoping someone here has come across this.

I moved us in to our new place on Sunday night. Axel’s been at his sitters so it was just gizmo and I. He was totally fine. He explored and ate some dinner drank some water. Then he snoozed, he was very tired and it made sense. It was a long day.

Monday morning we wake up early, at 430. I shower and get ready for work. He was still snoozing but following me. So pretty normal but I would say still more on the sleepy side. He didn’t eat or drink through out the night which was also unusual.

I come home from work 9 hours later and he was acting odd. He couldn’t walk straight, very stiff legged and drunk like. Couldn’t hold his head up, kept dropping to the side and down. If he did hold it up it was very stiff and unnatural looking. I check his food and water and still no change. So right away I rushed him to the vet. We wait an hour and a half to be seen.

They did blood work and found his potassium very low so they right away put him on IV fluids and said he will be staying the night.

Update in the middle of the night was his potassium dropped even though he’s getting heavy dose of constant potassium. So it went from 3.0 when he arrived to 2.7. Now the weird thing is the symptoms he is showing don’t typically show up unless the potassium level is less than 2.5.

Just had another update now. His potassium is sitting at 2.7. No improvement on his symptoms. His urinalysis came back normal. His blood work did too for the most part. Electrolytes were low and obviously potassium. But his kidneys are in good working order, no diabetes signs. Nothing. Even the internal medicine specialist is stumped, he has never come across this or heard of this either. No one has any idea why this is happening. They did a drug screen too and it came back clean. Cuz it’s a new place we were worried maybe someone’s old drugs were hiding somewhere and he snatched it up. So now they are testing his thyroid as basically just trying to find answers. Next will be abdomen X-ray and ultrasound to check for masses, blockages, and check adrenal glands. They said super rare but sometimes adrenal glands can over secrete causing these type of symptoms but once again, very rare.

so I’m hoping someone here has come across this and can help us solve this puzzle before he passes 😰💔
 

Jacqui-S

Moderator
Location
Fife, Scotland
Oh I am so sorry to hear this.
Drugs are a common cause of hypokalaemia, so I would definitely wonder if he has come across some random meds somewhere - diuretics are the commonest culprit - I assume he hasn't been peeing much more than normal.
I am guessing that just like here, your vets can only test for what they look for, and can't test for every known drug.
I really hope that a period at the vets with supportive care gets whatever it is out his system
:thelambiesarecoming:
 
Oh I am so sorry to hear this.
Drugs are a common cause of hypokalaemia, so I would definitely wonder if he has come across some random meds somewhere - diuretics are the commonest culprit - I assume he hasn't been peeing much more than normal.
I am guessing that just like here, your vets can only test for what they look for, and can't test for every known drug.
I really hope that a period at the vets with supportive care gets whatever it is out his system
:thelambiesarecoming:
They did ask me if he could have gotten in to any blood pressure medication or stuff like that. And I really don’t think he did but possibly ..? Maybe a pill was in a corner of a closet somewhere? I’m not sure. But say he did, what would the treatment be? Fluids until he’s improved? Like I can’t help but wonder why not give him charcoal incase he did ingest some type of toxin.
 
I’m so sorry to read this. What a worry.

I don’t have a cat, but I often read about how one must be so careful with things like essential oils, cats are so much more sensitive than dogs. Have you recently given him flea or tick preventatives?

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for Gizmo. xxx
 
I do have a couple essential oils but I never use them and they are packed in a box somewhere. So I don’t think it’s that. If it had broke I would be able to smell it I think as they are so potent. And no, no tick or flee meds given either :(
 

Jacqui-S

Moderator
Location
Fife, Scotland
Maybe even some cleaning products?
I know Zoflora is highly toxic, who knows, really.
I think if he is showing symptoms then had been absorbed? Maybe too late for inducing vomiting and charcoal? I'm not sure what it is active against :)
Just hope your little guy is okay.
 
Location
Norfolk
So sorry to hear about Gizmo, I’ve kept cats all my life and never come across this sort of thing before, hoping you can get to the bottom of this and he recovers quickly :hug: .
 
Not that this will be helping you, but my neighbors cat had something similar. Vet had no clue what was the matter. My neighbor thought he ate a poisoned mouse...? Never got any answer. The vet put him on prednisone and after two weeks I think he was on the mend....

I hope you get some answers soon! :thelambiesarecoming:
 
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