I usually wait for more answers to be posted, but this answers ALL my questions! Thank you :) $40-$50 does not seem like a bad option for the flea treatment. Regarding the flea collar, given the collar's poisonous character, what are your views on putting the collar on and leaving the cat outside for a week or so, then taking the collar off and bringing her in? Do you think she will rid of her fleas and prevent any more fleas from getting on her in a week, making it safe to bring her in?

Her eye infection, it is sometimes bloody red to brownish in color. This one time, I was freaking out because it seemed like blood. I sat outside with her holding her for about 2 hours, feeling horrible about not being able to take her to the vet. But almost always, it is brownish in color. I will definitely try the topical antibiotic ointments for cats. One such ointment that my wife was prescribed for herself was steroidal. Does that exist for cats? Because I'd rather NOT put steroidal cream around her eyes and blind her and would like to keep my eyes open so I DONT get those.

Clipping or capping claws is fine for an indoor-only cat, but a cat that lives outside, even part time, needs sharp claws for defense.

I did some construction work in a house overrun by fleas, and they left my lower legs with tons of bites. I ended up wearing a flea collar around each ankle to prevent further problems. As for clipping the claws, make sure you don't clip them too far. There's a nerve in the nail that'll cause pain, but it can be avoided, leaving the cat only slightly POed, instead of in pain and POed.

Just a note: Even if fleas don't bite humans, I'd still be concerned about the ticks.

@computercarguy the "flea collar on your ankle" story makes me feel a lot better about keeping the cat in my house with a flea collar on! And THANK YOU for the nail information.

@JPhi1618 If I do clip the claws, she will probably never have to be outside for over an hour. Since she loves being outside, I would still let her walk out and meet her friends, but I know she will come back in an hour or so where I can care for her if need be.

This is not quite correct. While cat fleas generally do not feed on humans, they nevertheless try to and bite, but since the skin is too thick at the most places, they can't get in. There is a chance to transfer diseases that way.

Oh, and to help with future internet searches, the portion of the nail that you don't want to cut (with the nerves and blood) is referred to as the "quick". I'll leave it up to English.SE to explain that, because I've never known...

re: nail clipping - the "quick" can sometimes be hard to see but if you can get a good look at the claw under decent light you should see a darker section that looks like a shadow within the translucent nail - this is the quick so you need to avoid hitting that bit

If you take the cat to the vet, they have a medication called Capstar that kills 90% of fleas on the body in a few hours. You can watch the little jerks literally fall off dead. Its a bit pricey (20-30 USD per dose), but makes an excellent first-line attack on the flea problem.

Also cat fleas can jump up to thigh height on humans and can come indoors on clothing. Make sure to treat any other cats or dogs you might have. If the cat spends lots of time in your yard you may also have an outdoor infestation so it may be worth treating your yard as well. These things are incredibly persistent! One fertilized female is more than enough to set off an infestation, and it is a huge pain to eradicate. From experience, twice :/

"cat fleas do not feed on humans" - tell that to the little buggers in the UK. The fleas here certainly do enjoy biting humans.

Thank you everyone for your useful comments. I’ll keep all this in mind!

Do NOT use the cat nail covers. From experience, they've been known to cause infection on the paws, and can seriously injure a cat in the right conditions such as when claws are retracted or extended. Clipping their nails is a much more humane and less dangerous way though, so definitely worth a look.

If the cat goes out to meet its friends, it will come back with fleas, ticks, internal parasites, etc. every time. You will need to medicate the lot of them.

Do NOT cut the nails of a cat that is allowed to go outside. It will be unable to defend itself in a fight and cannot climb properly to escape danger. Nail clipping is for indoor cats only.

@RedSonja Would letting the cat go out with a flea collar on help with that?

@JackAidley Not even if the cat goes out for just an hour or so? I see these cats together and I know they all live in harmony. I've never seen them fight. There is this one cat that fights with all the other cats, but this one cat has been outcast from the group. So the 50-cat group has a beautiful relationship going on. But I understand what you're saying; you never know.

FYI cat fleas DO BITE HUMANS, first hand experience here, our cat went outside, got fleas, infected our carpet, and we were getting fleas for MONTHS. Our skin is not "more tough" than cat skin, they can bite through draw blood. It is true that fleas just aren't evolutionary fit to LIVE off of humans (its fairly easy to detect and fleas with sparsely hairy legs) they bite, but they can't lay eggs on human hair (not dense enough) and because they are so easy to find, one only needs to grab it, and crush it w/ finger nails to kill it.

@CrazyCucumber: Not even then, and in some ways it may be worse because the cat is not regularly patrolling its territory.

Capping claws is also not acceptable for a cat that spends any time outside. @CrazyCucumber I advocate against capping or declawing for any cat that might ever get outside (which is every cat, ever, because cats can be sneaky little bastards). Conservative clipping (i.e. just taking a little off the tip) is fine for a cat that spends very little time outside -- if a cat means to use them, they're still perfectly capable of digging into just about anything short of rock, but takes the razor points off so incidental claw touches aren't a bloody affair.