Is low potassium in cats a genetic issue?

I'm asking because my friend called to tell me that the brother of my cat went into cardiac arrest and died yesterday. She said that he had gotten into a room that had lilies in it, and as a precaution they took him to the vet (not sure what his symptoms were). The vet ran tests and didn't find anything wrong with him, but they kept him overnight to monitor him. During that time was when he went into cardiac arrest and passed... the vet said it wasn't the lilies, and that the only problem they could find was that his potassium was low enough that it could have killed him.

Sorry I don't have many more details, this was all the info I received from a brief call.

I'm wondering if I have any reason to worry about my cat, as the two were siblings. As far as I can tell, he's been acting pretty normal... maybe a little more sleepy than usual, but that's about it. I'm already thinking about taking him in just in case, but I wanted to see if anyone has any knowledge on the subject first!

thank you!

Oh, and I know some breeds are more predisposed to potassium issues... but we rescued these cats from a box so we're not sure what they are.

There are a lot of reasons cats can have hypokalemia (low blood potassium) but genetics isn't very high on the list.  I suspect the lilies are actually the culprit in this case given that:

-lily ingestion causes kidney failure

-kidney failure is the most frequent cause of hypokalemia

-the cat ate lilies

I'd need to know more about the treatment of the cat that passed away; mainly if he was on fluid therapy and if so did they add potassium to the fluids to maintain his blood levels?  If he did eat lilies and he did not receive this treatment then you have your answer as to what happened to him.

If you're concerned that there might be genetic link (metabolic diseases can be genetic and cause hypokalemia) then for peace of mind there is nothing wrong with having you cat's blood work run to check potassium levels.  I'm just not sure I would do the same unless my cat was having symptoms beyond being a little sleepier than usual.

Thank you for your response! This definitely gives me some peace of mind. If my guy displays any other changes in habit, I'll have him looked at