Dawn
Ticks and fleas love smelly skin (you may not smell it but they do) and an improper diet along with vaccines and chemical tick and flea treatments make them appealing.
I have two totally outside kitties and rarely find a tick on them. They only get wet food and they hunt and have plenty of their own kills to eat! No vaccines or chemical treatments. And yes do we ever live in tick country!
I also have 6 indoor only kitties. They are raw fed and I stopped vaccinating many years ago and never use chemical treatments on them. With them go along 2 big dogs that are inside and outside dogs. The dogs also get a lot of raw meat and raw meaty bones. I use homeopathy on all if there are any issues.
Keep working on getting your once feral kitty on raw food and do not waste any more of your money on kibble! There is a really good little company in PA called Hare Today (on the internet) where you can order almost any kind of protein in several different sizes to feed.
I use turkey with organs and bones mostly. Also use rabbit occasionally for variety. I do add fresh local raw egg yolks, l-lysine, a cholrella powder, garlic, an oil mixture for skin and psyllium husk powder. All of my cats love it. I feed twice a day and they get a mouse sized spoonful!
Not sure if that's very helpful but I encourage you to keep learning and use the links provided on this site as well. Vet medicine is as messed up as human medicine and both have become profit driven. The true health of human and animal patients has become a distant second.
Happy learning!