Feline Herpes - resident cat and kitten at shelter

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with feline herpes.

My resident cat is older (probably at least 12 yrs) not sure of her age - I adopted her almost 2 yrs ago so she could be even older than 12.

She's been seen by my vet multiple times for her runny/snotty nose, congestion and respiratory issues. They never mentioned she might have Feline Herpes until:

I went to my local shelter and brought home a tiny kitten...his paperwork stated he may have feline herpes. I did ask the girl at the shelter and she pretty much blew it off. I took him home and probably shouldn't have.

I called my vet the next day and that's when it was finally brought to my attention that my resident cat Sapphire may have herpes. And that if I kept the kitten, they would both just constantly be infecting one another and it would shorten both their lives.

I ended up bringing the kitten back to the shelter but feel just awful because I really don't think he has a good chance at being adopted. He's very small, thin, his eyes look strange because of the illness.

I know it wouldn't be fair to either one to be so sick all the time...but in all reality would they really be getting one another sick 100% of the time?

Just curious as to what other people have experienced with the whole feline herpes issue.

I'm assuming if only one of them had it, it wouldn't be such an issue? My vet said to look for a very healthy kitten, but he was the only one I'd even looked at & was interested in.

Thanks and sorry it's such a long post.

Michelle

Poor kitties.  I had a cat with herpes and treated her pretty successfully with lysine and lactoferrin.  Our other cats didn't get it.  I'm sure others can chime with more information about cat-to-cat infection.  

In the meantime, here's a thread  with some very good information about herpes in cats, and a good article  about it.