cats at a shelter in Utah Valley. My wife has been super struggling with depression and anxiety and we wanted to find her a cat that could be HERS (our other cat was a gift to me from her, but she is more of the chill type and my wife wants a cuddler) We found a cat there that my wife just fell in love with. He's SUPER affectionate, sweet, and mild mannered.

He was sniffling and sneezing a bit as were several other cats in the enclosure. But we were told that it was Feline Herpes. Our other cat had Feline Herpes when we adopted her, and the symptoms are like a mild cold. We weren't too turned off by that and they gave us some medicine and we were off.

We brought him home and kept him mostly in his own room for a few days to get him and our new cat acclimated. But unlike our cat that we've had for years who got over her herpes in just a few days, our new cat got worse. Much worse.

The first 2 or 3 days, he was just having mild to moderate cold-like symptoms but we still introduced him to the older cat. It went about as well as introducing cats goes. Tense, but normal.

The next day though, he noticeably got worse. He just wanted to lay down and rest in dark locations and didn't want to come out. He also became extremely lethargic and began to have what appeared to be very serious discharge from his nose and mouth (with blood in it).

My wife took him to the vet and the vet told us that it was likely to be a virus called Calicivirus. Calicivirus is VERY serious, dangerous, and painful for cats. It supposedly has an incubation period of about 2 weeks, so he had to have gotten it at the shelter, and likely many cats at this shelter have it because there were several who were coughing/sneezing.

He had to be put on an IV and given several injections of pain medication. We then we're told to take him home and make sure he got plenty of fluids and rest.

The next day he had gotten even worse. My wife took him to an emergency animal hospital and they once again gave him an IV and gave him pain medication. He had developed very painful ulcers in his mouth, and the veterinarian said that the ulcers were so bad that he might even lose a part of his tongue. They recommended that we keep him there overnight so that he can be monitored.

This morning they called and told us that he was doing SLIGHTLY better, but that this virus has the potential to create lifelong maladies. He may never be the same again.

We are major animal lovers, and we will go farther than most people would to try to save his life. With all that we've been through the last week, we are probably in the hole about $3,000.

Since the shelter we adopted him from told us that it was feline herpes, gave us ineffective medicine, and he more than likely got it FROM there, do we have any financial recourse for the vet bills?