Indoor feral, year two. Has fleas...please help.

I adopted a feral kitty, Panda, at about age 9 months. She had been rescued as a small kitten by a couple that never people-socialized her, but I thought she was young enough to get her to 'come around' to my wants (I know, very naive). This is about three years later and I still can not touch her (with her realizing it, anyway).

So my dilemma: She has fleas (fostered a beautiful Siamese kitty for a few months that came with fleas, sigh). I can't stand it that she is riddled with them, as I know the irritation. Makes it impossible to eliminate fleas in my apartment completely, meaning my other cat keeps getting them, too. The few times I have been able to touch her back (when other kitty was bathing her and Panda didn't know it was me), her skin feels like sandpaper. I am assuming this is because of the fleas. I often see them on her...on her belly or her forehead...but what can I do????

How do I trap her even though she lives in my apartment? And will the vet then give her a tranquilizer so that she can get bathed without too much trauma? Or can I tranquilize her myself (a steal a belly-pet or two!)? Is there a flea med that is ingestible?

I am very low income, so anything I can do to treat her myself is necessary. 

There is an oral flea pill---Comfortis---but I don't know if your vet will prescribe it without seeing the kitty :/. Maybe if you explain the situation? It's about $15 a dose that lasts a month.

You can buy Capstar OTC, it's about $3-$4 a dose. It only lasts 24 hours, but if you give one every 3 days or so for a while it might make a decent dent in the flea population. You can crush it and put it in wet food---my cats never notice it so I guess it's flavorless.

You can also get some diatomaceous earth and dust her sleeping places really well. Might help.

Willowy said:

You can also get some diatomaceous earth and dust her sleeping places really well. Might help.

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DE  could  be a good solution / part of good solution here. Taking also these fleas whom got astray, as they do get astray in this situation...  I mean, the whole of your flat must be contaminated...

I presume you can perhaps use the drop on  deparasiters, like  Revolution?  There are also other spot ons.

Its essentielly enough you can come close and drop a drop high up between the shoulders

Can't get drops on her as she runs away if she sees my hand coming close....

Use salt throughout the flat to kill the fleas, vacuum often so fleas are mainly on her. Salt is a wonderful, low cost flea control for carpet, BTW!

Thanks.

feralpanda said:

 
Use salt throughout the flat to kill the fleas, vacuum often so fleas are mainly on her. Salt is a wonderful, low cost flea control for carpet, BTW!

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Salt?  Common salt?   A nice tip!  Tx!

How do you use it?   I presume in long run itsn healthy for you to inhale, and also the metalls in your home?

Is it possible to use outside door salt, such used on traps and so on?  Its sold cheaply in big sacks...

interesting if salt works.  I swear by DE - it's cheap too and kills fleas as soon as they walk through it.  also when you get her socialized a flea comb is a very cheap way to address fleas on a cat if you can't afford Revolution, just keep a bowl of water by to drop them in.  It is time consuming but a side benefit is that the combing is very calming to a cat and helps with socializing.

If later you are able to take her to a low cost clinic for spaying or other treatment, they usually offer flea treatment at cost, something to bear in mind.