Last sunday my wife got home and told me our oldest cat (2 and a half) was breathing and acting weird. I didn't understand cause before I had gone to work he was on the bed looking at me seemed normal. I got home and saw him, and we played a waiting game to see if maybe it was just temporary, when he didn't seem to be doing any better, we took him to a vet. They weren't much help at all, and their conclusion was he either has cancer or pneumonia and wouldn't be able tell further unless we paid about $1000 in hospitalization, x-rays, and medicine. We have 5 cats total and while he have money to take care of them when in need, that kind of money we do not have, so we took some antibiotics and hoped that he just has pneumonia.

So far, his breathing is only slightly better, it as not as deep but still short breaths. He will not eat solid food, and we have been trying to keep him hydrated via syringe every couple of hours with kitten formula and pedialyte. About once a day now, he'll try and knock over the water container and take a few sips, and I've notice he only urinates a small amount, not sure of any stool because all cats use the same litter. Outside of his short breaths, lack of appetite, and dehydration, he seems to be fine aside from his extreme tiredness. We lost his brother just before their first birthday because he developed a tumor on his spine that would've also cost us thousands of dollars in treatment. They were both diagnosed with cat leukemia so I realize that this factors into what is possible ailing him. It's just really bothersome because he just changed out of nowhere, which is why we opted to take him home that night instead of putting him to sleep and also it would've ruined thanksgiving for my wife.

I'm sorry if I'm just popping up and don't really remain active, I just saw a few old threads on this site where people had similar issues and you all gave really thorough feedback. I guess I'm just wondering if I should continue manually feeding him or am I fighting off the inevitable and should reduce his stress, or if anyone has any ideas over what might help us figure out his sickness that is of reasonable cost, I love my cats very much and if I had the money I wouldn't mind, but I really can't afford a few hundred dollar treatments per vet visit. We have come to terms with the worst case scenario so I just thought I'd seek some more opinions.... Sorry for the long read. Here's a picture of Cat from last year with one of his kittens, Pretty. I appreciate any help.