"Do you still have the tick? You can send it to a lab for analysis, it costs just $60."

This is the most important lesson of the whole discussion, having gone thru this. There's a direct analogy with rabies, if you know the animal is uninfected you can save yourself quite a bit of time, pain, and money. If you know its infected, well, treatment usually is wiser than waiting for death.

Bit by a dog? Eh, make it let go, and then walk away, no need to check for a rabies vaccination tag. After all, what are the odds? LOL