Home remedies for cat infection (kind of a long but sad story about a lost baby kitten, please help!)?

The story goes that me and my fiancee found a little kitten in my future in laws barn when we were going there to visit late at night a few days ago. We heard a distant cry for help as soon as we pulled in the drive way that was made by a cat and so we went a got a flashlight to go find what it was about and outside in the barn we see this dirty little tiny kitten behind a stack of wood covered in plant stickers with no mother or other litter of kittens around so we figured it was accidentally left behind or something. i picked it up to bring it in the house to examine it and in the light we see that its eyes had to of been infected, so much so that its eye lids were completely shut with goopy infectous dried up mucus or something like that and the cat was completely blind due to it couldnt open its eyes. It kept bumping into things and it looked so skinny like it was starved and needed food so we gave it some milk and some cat food and the little kitten gobbled it up fast. It also sneezes alot too. My heart instantly went out to this kitten and im not even a cat person at all but to see a little baby life who is blinded by an eye infection and all alone and scared with no mom and cant even see where its going and has no idea how to take care of itself I just felt amazingly sorry for it and felt the need to do whatever i could to help it out. now let me just say that through many searches online I already know that the absolute best option for a cat eye infection is going to a vet and home remedies in most cases arent recommended and I already made a vet appointment in town yesterday for today (tuesday) but just my luck my car wouldnt start and i just called to reschedule and they didnt have another appointment till friday and i just hate to make this cat suffer another 3 days like this im not sure if this is eating away at its eyes or what. It has gotten better since we found it because the left eye is starting to open and i think it can see now but barely. We tried calling the pound too and they said they would take it in but we also know through rumors of pounds we hear that they dont put much effort into helping animals and are very quick to put them to sleep to save money and this kitten has already broke our hearts with what its gone through that our conscience just says lets try to help this poor thing ourselves and take it to our own vet. One problem is we already have 2 cats so a third cat and plus our own baby on the way will be hard but we will deal with that later i guess, maybe find it a home ourselves but first we are trying to get the little baby kitten healty, any suggestions at all? is there something we can do at home that will bring this poor creature back to health or is the best option just to make it sit in a small cage until friday, its in a cage because we dont know if its infection is contagious so we also wear rubber gloves when handling it. Also it is dirty from being lost and I suggested giving it a bath but my fiancee said she thought she heard a cat can go into shock if you give it a bath, is that true? It also seems to eat enough but doesnt seem to drink as much as it should or at least i dont see it drinking as much as it should so any suggestions on that? any information will be greatly appreciated this cat has broken our hearts and we are trying anything to get it healthy again! please help! thanks alot in advance