My 17 year old kitty was doing fine for an old man when I noticed some blood clots in his urine. He'd had hematuria on and off for years which was chalked up to stress-induced cystitis. He had endured years of painful glaucoma and finally we had his eyes removed last summer. After that, pain symptoms were gone, and he was managing blindness like a pro. Anyway, the clots were alarming so I opted for Clavamox. That night we went for a walk and he ate a ton of food, I even commented on how great a night he seemed to be having. Popped the first pill and sure enough by morning he was not eating, lethargic, etc. Vet said it happens, just try and get him to eat anything. We had gone through a fatty liver scare once before. So, all my focus went to getting his apetite back. We also did an ultrasound and they found a "mass" on the neck of his bladder. I wonder now, however, if it was actually a clot, since those were prevalent. In any case, not great, but he wasnt showing any actual symptoms of anything serious - behavior or eating wise - until the damn antibiotics. Blood work showed kidney numbers were stable in between stage 1 and 2 levels. So, I figured he just needed to get his GI tract in order, and manage nausea. I was counting calories, syringing when needed, he was drinking water and urinating, and once I got some probiotics into his system he started having healthy poops and apetite slowly improved. We started Cartrophen subq injections to reduce bladder inflammation, and I added gabapentin to his daily meds which included prednisolone and methimazole (hyperactive thyroid), all at low doses of 0.01 mls each. I was making "kitty smoothies" with the 3 meds, some omega 3 fish oil, Thrive powder, CBD oil, and a little bit of either plain yogurt or wet food. He would only eat Whiskas kibble at that point, as well as some ground beef mixed with yogurt. After a month of running around, cooking food, getting him to reach his 200 cals/day he started to eat on his own. I was still worried/watchful, but I cancelled a vet appt since he was acting more like his normal self every day. I had a reiki healer come every Friday. One night I came home from work and he was sullen, not moving, eating OR drinking water. I set my alarm to keep waking up every 2 hrs to check on him, and even slept with him on the couch as he couldnt make it upstairs. He got into the vet first thing, and two hours later they told me it was a complete shutdown. Renal failure, anemia, anuria, the works. There was only one thing to do for him, as heartbreaking as it was to have to decide and without notice like that, he needed peace. I understood in the moment that it was the right thing to do, however I can't shake this feeling that if we hadn't done those antibiotics, the downward spiral wouldn't have begun. Don't poke the hornet's nest, so to speak. I feel such huge guilt for not going to the vet two weeks before, as they may have noticed the things I wasn't, and perhaps we could have staved off major kidney damage. What do you all think? Was it inevitable? Was it his time? Or did overmedicating/antibiotics toxify his system? I miss him so much, it's been three weeks and I am devestated.