Consistently Sick Cats

Hello,

I recently began volunteering to take care of some shelter cats in my area. They come from other shelters and so I'd imagine they could have all kinds of things happening with them but most commonly (as in, almost always) the kittens we get are sick - sneezing, coughing, sneezing blood, sneezing phlegm and blood, runny eyes, diarrhea, and then the whole kennel gets it from people coming in and going from cage to cage, cleaning improperly, or not having enough of the proper supplies to clean properly.

I  want to do more for them as when I see this my only recourse is to call the rescue group that sponsors them (which have been great but are sooooo busy) or tell the retail store that promotes their adoptions, whose staffing ranges from excellent to poor, running the gamut of manager to people who are "just there and don't care". As a result, they are often unreliable unless you have the good fortune of accessing a (real) manager.

My concern is, being as overwhelmed as everyone is, that a cat or kitten will pass because information got dropped somewhere along the way. 

Does anyone know what these symptoms usually mean and what to do about them? I am not allowed to administer anything to the cats but I really want to know if there's something I can do for them while I am there. 

Any suggestions? 

Thanks in advance!

My guess would be an upper respiratory infection, basically a cold. And, just like in humans, the severity of the cold can be mild or severe, a lot of that depending on your general health. So obviously stressed scared little kittens who maybe haven't been properly cared for before they ended up at the shelter are going to get it worse . Antibiotics may prevent the infection from turning bacterial but won't do anything for the viral infection. All you really can do is keep them clean, warm, well-fed, well-hydrated, and reduce stress as much as possible under the circumstances.

L-lysine has some antiviral properties, and suppresses the herpes virus (which is one cause of URIs). You might ask the rescue if they could get some l-lysine powder and you could put a pinch in the kitties' food or water.

Cleaning properly will help. Bleach is cheap and is reasonably safe if diluted correctly (instructions on the bottle), but may not kill all viruses (but just wiping the cleaning solution off reduces the viral load considerably, so even if you just use water, it's better than nothing). Everybody needs to wash/sanitize their hands between cages. There's no excuse for them not to be keeping things clean. Someone needs to put their foot down on that subject.