I went to the Appalachian mountains. I left 2 days ago. Just now, I found a tic in a crevice of my ear. It was alive, but wasn’t full of blood. It was still thin. I also don’t feel any bite marks.
I don’t know much about tics or Lyme’s disease. Is there anything I should do or watch out for?
Yeah, just watch for any signs of change in the region where it could have fed. Looking for things like redness and inflammation, discoloration, pain, tenderness, itching, etc etc. If you notice no outward symptoms you are probably fine. Most tick bites do not cause infection anyway.
If I were you I’d see a doctor. Assuming you picked it up two days ago, that is sufficient time for it to settle and bite. The fact that it was not engorged is not assurance that you weren’t bitten. Some people catch lyme and never show a rash, although that is uncommon.
Your doctor may prescribe an antibiotic as a preventative measure.
If you feel the need to see a doctor, by all means do so. As someone who has spent several decades camping and have been bitten by multiple ticks in my lifetime, I would not worry to much about it unless you start to notice the symptoms of Lyme disease. The CDC recommends seeing a doctor if you develop a rash or fever within several weeks of a tick bite. Source: https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/removal/index.html
While it sounds like you’ve been pretty lucky, keep in mind that the prevalence of Lyme disease has grown significantly over the past few decades
It’s entirely possible the tick you found was still looking for a good place to dine. Obviously keep track of your scalp and where you found this one so you’re sure there are not others and you aren’t actually bit or anything. But 2 days after contact is kinda when they hunker down and start sucking so there’s a good chance you found it before the problems could happen.
Assuming you pulled the tick out properly and didn’t leave the head or mouth parts in there, pay attention for symptoms and not sure how it will manifest on the ear but typically a red ring around the bite indicates something you might want to take antibiotics for. The type of tick matters too, Lone Star Tick will give you STARRI but if you were in the mountains it was probably a deer tick which you’ll want to watch out for Lyme disease with. Fever is a common symptom.
How big was it? Normal ticks don’t carry Lyme’s disease and are about the size of a pencil eraser. Deer ticks do carry Lyme disease and are much smaller, they are more like the tip of a pencil.
