Help Needed. Sick cats at home....

I hope someone can shed some light for me.

I have spent close to $500 in the past 2 weeks on my cats. $500 - in the two weeks leading up to Christmas - yeah this has been fun. They are all sick, like with the flu or something. Lots of sneezing, some coughing, all have temps.

I took the sickest one to the vet 2 weeks ago, he hadn't been eating and I could see he had lost weight. He had a fever, which shocked me as I didn't realize he was all that sick, other than lack of appetite and weight.

Well, he tested him for leukemia - at my urging (since the symptoms seemed to point that way - gave him an antibiotic when the test came back negative for leuk. Also gave a steroid, and said come back in two weeks.

So in the meantime, ALL the rest of my cats got sick (sneezing, fever, etc.). So today, 3 cats went to the vet....including the one from two weeks ago - and - HE STILL HAD A FEVER!!! AND LOST MORE WEIGHT!!! Not getting better, apparently.

WTF.

I'm at a loss here. I mean, I GUESS the next step is blood tests to determine exactly what they all got sick from (since ONE of them apparently infected everyone else), but I really don't have THAT much money. The past 2 weeks has cost $500 and it's NOT been fun, given it's Christmas and all.

Anybody have any ideas what might be wrong with my fur babies? Anybody experienced this? Could it be that they've all just gotten the same strain of a "cold" or flu or some kind of thing? BTW - they are all indoor cats, and never go outside.

** One last thing - if you're going to post some stupid shit like, "just kill them all and freeze the carcasses to eat later," or something similarly inane, I swear I will ban you. I'm not in the mood for stupid jokes about cats. I love my cats, AND I don't want them to suffer with some kind of illness, and I'm worried they'll just get worse until this is figured out.

Thanks for any input from other cat lovers!

Wife is a vet, she says most likely it's the herpes virus. They all need to be put on an antibiotic to treat the secondary bacterial infection that comes along with the virus.

There is no cure for the herpes virus, all cats have it to some degree, its just that some aren't as affected as others. It's very common in multi cat households. When they tell you that they have an upper respiratory infection, that's the herpes virus.

You can take their temperature yourself, using a regular thermometer. Normally their Temps range up to 102.5. When they are at 103, it's time to be concerned.

Your vet will recommend an anti biotic, depending the severity of your outbreak. This will not cure the virus, but will take care of the bacterial infection. You can get a supplement called Viralize. Many have good luck with it to ward off infections. If the vet determines it's just the herpes virus, ask about Acyclovir. It works well.

Good luck with it. We have several rescues. Take the sickest one back to the vet asap.

It's very kind of you to offer this professional advice. Pretty sure Michelle is stressed to the max and missed your post. Had she seen it, I know she'd be so grateful for it.

Did you by any chance mean "Vitalize" rather than Viralize?