How to Check Your Dog for Ticks and Remove One Safely

Check your dog after every walk through grass or woods, pull any tick out with fine-tipped tweezers, and keep the tick in case your dog falls ill later. This guide follows the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the parasite councils vets follow in North America (CAPC, the Companion Animal Parasite Council), Europe (ESCCAP) and the tropics (TroCCAP), all checked on 21 October 2026. Which diseases ticks carry depends on where you live, so ask your vet what to watch for locally.

Why speed matters

Some infections pass quickly. CAPC says Ehrlichia and Rickettsia can be transmitted within 3 to 6 hours of a tick attaching, while the Lyme disease bacterium usually needs 24 to 48 hours of feeding (CAPC). So the sooner a tick comes off, the better. Checks don’t replace a preventive, though: the CDC calls a tick preventive product important for dogs, because vaccines don’t exist for most of the diseases ticks give them (CDC).

How to check

Run your fingers slowly over your whole dog, feeling for a small bump, then part the fur and look. Young ticks are small: ESCCAP notes that larvae and nymphs are much harder to spot than adults, while a female full of blood (engorged) can reach 1 cm (ESCCAP).

The CDC’s list of places to check:

• In and around the ears
• Around the eyelids
• Under the collar
• Under the front legs
• Between the back legs
• Between the toes
• Around the tail

Blacklegged ticks, which carry Lyme disease, are often found in and near trees, shrubs, tall grass and piles of leaves, says the Public Health Agency of Canada, so check after walks there. If you can’t tell whether a bump is a tick, ask your vet before pulling at it.

How to remove a tick

You need fine-tipped tweezers, disposable gloves, and a small zip-top bag or a jar with some rubbing alcohol.

1. Put on gloves. CAPC advises gloves in case the tick is crushed while you pull.
2. Grip the tick as close to the skin as you can with the tweezers (CDC).
3. Pull straight out with steady, even pressure. Don’t twist or jerk it: both the CDC and CAPC warn against it.
4. Keep the tick. Put it in a small jar or tube with some rubbing alcohol, or wrap it in sticky tape, then seal it in a zip-top bag and write the date on it. CAPC gives this advice for ticks taken off people, so the tick can be identified if illness follows (CAPC); it works the same way for your dog’s vet.
5. Clean the bite with soap and water or an alcohol-based sanitiser, as the Public Health Agency of Canada advises, and wash your hands.

Purpose-made tick removal tools, such as tick hooks and tick twisters, also work: ESCCAP and TroCCAP both list them as an option (TroCCAP). Use one the way its maker says.

If part of the tick stays in: the CDC’s advice for people is that if you can’t remove the mouthparts easily with tweezers, you leave them alone and let the skin heal. Don’t dig. In dogs, ESCCAP notes, mouthparts left in the skin can cause an infection or a small abscess, so watch the spot for a few days.

What not to do

• Don’t put anything on the tick to make it let go. The CDC lists petroleum jelly, heat and nail polish; ESCCAP adds oil, alcohol and ether.
• Don’t squeeze or crush it with your fingers (CDC).
• Don’t let your dog eat it. Hepatozoon, a parasite of dogs, passes when a dog swallows an infected tick (TroCCAP).
• Don’t use your dog’s tick product on a cat. Some tick chemicals made for dogs are toxic to cats (ESCCAP), and the CDC says to ask your vet before putting any tick product on a cat.

Which diseases ticks carry where you live

These are examples from each region’s own guidance, not a full list. Your vet knows what’s common where you are.

Many infected dogs show no signs. CAPC says infections with Ehrlichia and Anaplasma without signs are common (CAPC), and ESCCAP says most dogs infected with the Lyme bacterium show no signs.

When to see a vet

Go now if your dog:

• Is suddenly weak or wobbly, especially in the back legs. This can be tick paralysis, which CAPC describes as a sudden, spreading (“ascending”) paralysis. For Australia’s paralysis tick, the University of Sydney also lists vomiting, coughing, gagging, a change in bark and trouble breathing, and warns that signs can keep getting worse after the tick is out.
• Has nosebleeds, or small red spots or bruises on the gums or skin. CAPC lists both in ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis, from low platelets.

Call your vet soon if, in the weeks after a bite, your dog:

• Has a fever, is tired, eats less or loses weight
• Has pale gums: lift the lip and look. CAPC lists pallor among the signs of babesiosis (CAPC).
• Is stiff, has swollen joints or doesn’t want to move (CAPC), or limps (ESCCAP)
• Has a lump at the bite that swells, oozes or doesn’t heal

Tell the vet when you found the tick, and take the saved tick along.

Also call your vet if you can’t get a tick out, if you find a lot of ticks (TroCCAP advises a fast-acting tick medicine when there are too many to pull off by hand), or if ticks keep turning up on a dog that’s on a preventive. ESCCAP points out that a product’s protection can last for a different time against different tick species, which is why checks still matter. In Australia’s paralysis tick areas, the University of Sydney advises calling your vet as soon as you find any tick on your dog.

Prevention: ask your vet

• The product: tablets or chews, spot-ons and collars all exist (TroCCAP). The CDC suggests asking your vet which product suits your dog and which tick diseases occur where you live.
• All year, or a season? It depends on where you live. CAPC, writing for North America, advises tick control all year round for every dog; TroCCAP says the same for dogs in the tropics; the University of Sydney recommends it all year in tick-risk areas. In Europe, ESCCAP says protection should cover the whole period ticks are active, which differs from place to place.
• A vaccine: in the US, Lyme disease is the only tick-borne disease dogs can be vaccinated against, says the CDC. Ask your vet whether a vaccine makes sense where you live.

FAQs

Can I catch Lyme disease from my dog? Not from the dog itself: ESCCAP says dogs don’t pass the Lyme bacterium on to people. But a tick taken off your dog may still carry it, so dispose of it carefully. CAPC also advises checking yourself and your children for ticks after time outdoors.

Should I test the tick? Ask your vet. Keeping it, labelled with the date, means it can be identified if your dog falls ill later.

I found a tick. Is my dog ill? Not necessarily, and an infected dog may show no signs at all, so a bite alone tells you little. Note the date, watch your dog for the next few weeks, and call your vet if anything on the list above appears.