Neighbor's cats getting sick, mine at risk?

[Gail]

I have a wonderful neighbor who volunteers at a local no kill animal rescue center for (mainly) cats. She, of course, has many that she is "fostering" until homes are found. I have, in fact, adopted one of her kittens (last fall). All of her cats, and mine, are strictly indoor. Two weeks ago she brought home a kitten to foster that had some sort of respriatory condition (undiagonsed) that it was taking antibiotics for. It seemed to improve, then it suddenly took a turn for the worse one evening and died quite quickly in her arms. He was about 6 weeks old. I spoke to her on the phone this morning and she is in a panic. Of the 7 cats she has all but two are showing symptoms of the disease and several are quite ill - an 18 year old female and a 9 week old kitten are the worst. She has been treating for a week with anitbiotics and actually gave the older female an antibiotic injection yesterday, but the improvement isn't much in any of them. I love her dearly and usually help her on occassion to medicate her cats when needed, but I am afraid of her asking for my help this time because I am afraid my two precious boys will get whatever it is that her cats have. I recently became unemployed and cannot afford sudden visits to the vet right now. Do you think that I should politely refuse to assist her if she asks and tell her why? Does anyone have any idea what is wrong with her cats? She had the one that died to the vet only a few days before he died and the vet didn't give her any good answers, just medication.
Thanks for any help,
Gail

[Traci]

The vet probably couldn't give her answers unless specific tests were performed. The most appropriate (and moral) thing to do is get those cats tested, this should include ruling out distemper, salmonella, or feline infectious disease. While your neighbor has a good heart, she is putting any cat she brings in at risk for whatever is ailing the others. Testing needs to be done immediately to save lives and those of future kittens and adults she brings in. Ideally, the shelter or organization she is fostering for, needs to develop a working relationship with a qualified vet to test when necessary. While costs may be an issue, so are saving lives. If the shelter is suffering an outbreak of something, it's incumbent upon them to isolate it, test the kitties obviously sick or infected and treat agressively.

I would not be putting your own cats at risk here. Unless you can somehow help your neighbor afford to test at least one of the cats, neither of you truly have any idea what you're dealing with. I'm afraid her treating with antibiotics only is not the solution, there is obviously a problem undiagnosed and she needs to make sure this is not an infectious epidemic.