I always treated ticks without concern till I got one a while back, that caused a really bad reaction, things got so bad The Doctor injected me with some chemical to counter the reaction. The problem went away in a few hours, but ever since then I have treated those damn ticks with respect.
Glad yu are OK.
I was on a very long 12 week hike in Europe and picked up quite a few ticks, probably over 30. They can cause Lymes disease, but I knew how to get them off and what to look for, in case I caught the disease.
Not long before the end, the last tick did not come out cleanly. You are supposed to get them out without killing them. Check they are still alive when you have them out and then send them to their maker. So I had to dig around to get the head out and afterwards, the inflammation looked like the dreaded red ring.
I got home about a week later and went off to the doctor. He had never heard of Lymes disease (it wasn't common in Australia) but he rang the Australian expert in this topi, a professor of medicine in a university in NSW.
The doctor wanted to know how to diagnose if it was Lymes disease. The professor asked why he thought it might be since it was unlikely to be picked up in Australia. So he told him I had been hiking in Europe and had picked up 30 or so ticks. The professor said "No point in diagnosing it after that many tcks, assume he has it. This is the treatment!" A course of a specific antibiotic.
Went to the chemist, picked up the tablets, took the first dose, an hour or so later, I was glued to the toilet. Next morning, everything that went down came straight back out.
Went back to the chemist, he said he wasn't surprised, as it was a massive dose, so much that he had contacted the doctor to make sure he hadn't put an extra zero on the dose size!
He rang again thinking he could shift me to something that didn't react as much. No luck, it was this or nothing.
Then the chemist said did I mind eating yogurt? He had read read the antibiotic killed all the gut thingies and that yogurt could replace them. Downed a tub of yogurt and it was like magic instant cure.
Unfortunately, Lymes disease is now about in Australia, but almost nobody knows what to look for or how to minimise the chances of being infected.
The trick is you need to have the tiny claw hammer removal tool to carefully screw it out without upsetting it so it releases its venom. Then you have to keep looking for the next two weeks for the tell tale red ring. If you see it, get to the doctor and tell them it might be Lymes disease.
take care
Mike