It could be an infection which will require antibiotics. You need to have your cat seen by a vet to determine if there’s infection. To help with congestion you can steam up the bathroom with the shower and let the cat breathe in the steam. That’s about the only safe thing you can do at home at this point not knowing the exact problem the cat has. Your vet can give some good tips on ways to make your cat comfy till he’s well.

i agree with pretty kitty answer. if u cant afford vet, kiss it good-bye sorry to say.
or try your local pet store, sometimes they have antibiotics you can buy
or try petmeds.com they sell ‘em online, I THINK.
one last thing is try cooking a WHOLE chicken and give it some chicken broth and or chicken. If it doesnt eat, i’ts REAL SICK. please take it to vet.

DO NOT GIVE YOUR CAT “MEDICINE” THAT YOU MAKE AT HOME. that is one of the worst ideas i have heard. if it is sick for a while and is getting worse, take it to a vet. whenever my cats have had colds it is only sneezing and runny nose/eye goobers, no coughing. if it has a cough it might be an infection cats are small and an infection can take hold quickly. cats can get pneumonia and other illnesses similar and it can be serious if not treated.

I agree with Pretty Kitty: best idea is to take it to the vet. Your little kit could have a number of different things happening, including flu, FIV, kitty leuk, and/or just a plain kitty cold. If kittens/cats can’t breath through their nose (they are nose breathers, not mouth breathers), they can’t smell; what they can’t smell, they won’t eat, so if they are sick and congested, they usually go off their food. Sometimes hand feeding works, sometimes not.

Pretty Kitty’s suggestion of steaming up the bathroom is a good one: put food, water, and litterbox in the bathroom with the kitty. Turn on the shower (shower is preferred over just the tub spout… and note: the kitty is NOT in the shower! you can just leave him out on the floor by his food/water), and let the shower run hot until the steam fills the room really good (maybe 5 - 10 minutes… and don’t turn on the **** fan). Once it’s good & steamy in there, leave the cat in the bathroom (on the bathroom floor, *not* in the shower!), and close the door. I’ve had luck with this on some cats myself, and then others not so much.

I’ve also tried keeping their noses ‘clean’ by taking a wet, warm washrag (not scalding hot, but warm… if it is uncomfortably hot on your skin, it will be hot on kitty’s too) and washing kitty’s nose and eyes. Make sure you rinse the cloth after each face cleaning to prevent yuck buildup on the cloth. It’s also suggested to go from the eyes down towards the nose, not vice-versa; you don’t want snot & goobers going into the eye, so be careful on this. Also, some cats will let you do this, some won’t - it’s pretty much the same as trying to blow your nose (remember when you were little and your mom made you blow your nose? Most kids just *hated* it… I know I did). Don’t stress the cat out anymore than it already is - if you see it’s freaking out, stop. No sense in making it feel worse than it already does.

Make sure that your kitty has fresh food and water in the bathroom, too. It may not want to eat (most humans don’t eat much either when they are sick), but you do want to encourage them to drink water. I’ve had luck with filling a plastic eyedropper with fresh water and ‘dribbling’ it into the side of their mouth (not forcefully, but gently), and they naturally will try to swallow the water. It helps to keep them hydrated.

These are some things that you can try to do yourself, but, if you notice your kitty isn’t getting any better, you really do need a vet’s input. Best of luck to you.