The short answer
Stay calm. Remove the tick with fine-tipped tweezers or a Tick Twister, save it in a sealed bag, submit a photo to eTick.ca, and book a 4DX blood test for your dog 6–8 weeks later. Don’t start antibiotics on your own — that’s not the right call for dogs.
Step-by-step: what to do right now
1. Remove the tick properly
Use fine-tipped pointed tweezers or a tick removal tool (O’Tom Tick Twister, TickEase). Don’t use blunt fingertip tweezers, a lit match, petroleum jelly, or alcohol applied to the tick — these all increase the chance the tick regurgitates infected saliva into the bite.
- Grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible.
- Pull straight up with steady, even pressure. Don’t twist or jerk. (Tick Twisters are the exception — they’re designed to rotate.)
- Don’t squeeze the tick’s body.
- Disinfect the bite site and your hands afterward.
If the head breaks off and stays in the skin, don’t dig for it. The body usually pushes it out on its own in a few days. If the area becomes red, swollen, or painful, call us.
For more on technique, see how to safely remove a tick from your pet.
2. Save the tick
Drop it into a small sealed plastic bag or pill bottle. Don’t crush it, don’t flush it, don’t burn it. A saved tick can be identified by species, which tells us what diseases it could carry. Keep it for at least 5 days in case eTick.ca asks for additional photos.
For why flushing is the wrong move, see why you shouldn’t flush ticks down the toilet.
3. Submit to eTick.ca
eTick.ca is the free, Canada-wide tick identification platform run by Bishop’s University. Upload up to three photos of the tick. An expert returns a species ID within 1–2 business days. If the tick is a blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis), that’s the one that carries Lyme disease in Ontario.
Submitting pet ticks helps with public health surveillance — Halton Region Public Health and Public Health Ontario both reference eTick data in their tick risk maps.
4. Don’t start antibiotics on your own
People sometimes assume that as soon as their dog has a tick bite they need doxycycline. That’s not how veterinary tick management works. Single-dose human-style prophylaxis isn’t recommended for dogs by the Companion Animal Parasite Council, and reflex antibiotics on a healthy, asymptomatic dog can cause more harm than good (resistance, GI upset, masking other findings).
The right move is monitor and screen, not pre-treat.
5. Book a 4DX SNAP test 6–8 weeks after the bite
The 4DX is a quick in-clinic blood test that detects antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme), Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, and antigen for heartworm. Antibodies take 6–8 weeks to develop reliably, so testing earlier than that gives you a false negative.
If your dog is already due for an annual 4DX, ask whether the tick bite changes the timing.
6. Watch for symptoms over the next 2–5 months
Clinical Lyme disease in dogs can take months to appear. Watch for:
- Shifting-leg lameness (pain that moves from one leg to another)
- Fever, lethargy
- Decreased appetite
- Swollen joints or lymph nodes
About 5–10% of Borrelia-exposed dogs develop clinical illness. A smaller subset progress to Lyme nephritis, an immune-mediated kidney disease that can damage kidney function before any outward signs appear — which is why we screen for proteinuria on positive 4DX results, not just symptoms.
Call us if any of those signs show up. Don’t wait for the next annual visit.
7. Start a year-round preventive if you haven’t already
If your dog wasn’t on a tick preventive when this bite happened, get them on one this week. In Halton, roughly 38% of blacklegged ticks are infected with Lyme as of spring 2025 — odds you don’t want to keep running.
For the safest options, see the safest way to protect your dog from ticks.
A note on multi-pet households
If you have a cat at home, don’t put a permethrin-containing product on your dog (K9 Advantix II, certain flea collars). Permethrin is severely toxic to cats and can transfer through grooming or cuddling. Talk to your vet about non-permethrin options — there are good ones.
Key takeaways
- Remove the tick with fine-tipped tweezers, straight up, no twisting (unless using a Tick Twister).
- Save the tick in a sealed bag and submit photos to eTick.ca for species ID.
- Don’t start antibiotics on your own. Pets don’t benefit from human-style single-dose prophylaxis.
- Book a 4DX blood test 6–8 weeks after the bite — that’s how long antibodies take to show up.
- Watch for shifting-leg lameness, fever, lethargy, and swollen joints for 2–5 months.
- If your dog isn’t already on a year-round tick preventive, start one now.
References
- Companion Animal Parasite Council. “CAPC Recommendations.” capcvet.org
- Public Health Ontario. “Vector-Borne Disease Tool.” publichealthontario.ca
- eTick.ca. etick.ca and FAQ
- Halton Region Public Health. “Lyme Disease and Other Tick-Borne Diseases.” halton.ca
- Paws Canada. “You, Your Pet and Ticks.” pawscanada.ca