First remove the tick as soon as possible get help if you can if in a hard place to reach.
Document Your Tick Bite.
Take a picture of your tick bite and and save the tick. Please note the CDC indicate that up to 40% of people do not get a bull’s eye rash.
If you do you may want to take a picture because they come and go document, document.
California Department of Public Health state that:
One should not wait for the tick test results to seek medical advice.
Preserving a Tick:
A zip lock bag and a small piece of moist paper towel and store in a cool place.
If you are going to ship the tick to get it tested use a padded envelope so the tick does not get crushed. If you need to store it a cool place.
Ticks Harbor many pathogens: Bacterial infections, Viruses and Parasites.
Besides the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, various ticks in California transmit other microbial disease agents, such as relapsing fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, Colorado tick fever, babesiosis, Anaplasmosis, Ehrlichiosis , tick paralysis and Q fever.
Thus, if a tick is tested for presence of Borrelia burgdorferi and is found to be uninfected, the possibility still exists that it could have been infected with another pathogen or the test of the tick was a false negative.
Humboldt County Health department:
Some Lab may have more readily resources and can test a tick for serverals tick borne infections.
This is the one we know of at this time:
You can download the Igenex form order at: http://www.igenex.com/files/ticktest.pdf