I found a tick on me, my child or my pet. What do I do?

One page in this library answers this: Pull a tick straight out with tweezers as soon as you find it. It is for a tick you have just found, on your skin, on your child, or on a pet. It covers the US and the UK; ticks and the diseases they carry differ from place to place, so elsewhere your own health department’s advice comes first. It is not a diagnosis.

If a tick is attached to your skin, pull it straight out now with fine-tipped tweezers (or regular tweezers or your fingers if that is all you have) held as close to the skin as you can, with steady pressure and no twisting, and do not use heat, nail polish or petroleum jelly. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says to take an attached tick off yourself as soon as you can, and not to wait for a healthcare provider, because delay could raise your risk of a tickborne disease.

If a fever, a headache or a rash appears in the days or weeks afterwards, see a doctor and say you had a tick bite. In the US, the CDC says Rocky Mountain spotted fever can be deadly if it is not treated early, and its rash often comes late. In the UK, the NHS says to ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111 if you have been bitten by a tick or visited a place with ticks in the past 3 months and you feel unwell with flu-like symptoms or have a round or oval rash. The CDC lists a severe headache with a stiff neck, a drooping face, an irregular heartbeat, dizziness and shortness of breath among the later signs of untreated Lyme disease and says to seek medical attention. If any of these is sudden or severe, call 911 (US) or 999 (UK) instead of waiting for an appointment. The NHS lists these signs of a serious allergic reaction to a bite; call 911 (US) or 999 (UK) for any of them. The lips, mouth, throat or tongue suddenly swell, or the throat feels tight or swallowing is hard. Breathing is very fast or a struggle. The skin, tongue or lips turn blue, grey or pale (on black or brown skin, look at the palms and soles). The person suddenly becomes very confused, drowsy or dizzy, or faints and cannot be woken. A child is limp, floppy or not responding as usual. Do not treat yourself with an animal antibiotic: the FDA says animal drugs should not be used to treat people, that these products have not been evaluated for safety and effectiveness, and that some can cause serious harm; it says to take only drugs prescribed to you by your doctor from a legitimate source.

These are the CDC’s steps, in the CDC’s order. First, take clean fine-tipped tweezers and grip the tick right at the surface of the skin; gripping low, close to the skin, avoids squeezing the tick’s body. Second, pull the tick away from the skin with steady, even pressure; the CDC says not to twist or jerk it, because that can break the mouthparts off in the skin. Third, if the mouthparts stay behind, the CDC says your body will push them out as the skin heals; you can try to take them out with tweezers, and if they do not come out easily, leave them alone. Fourth, for a live tick, the CDC lists four ways to deal with it: put it in a sealed container, wrap it tightly in tape, flush it down the toilet, or put it in alcohol; it says not to crush the tick with your fingers. Fifth, clean the bite area and your hands with soap and water, rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer. Sixth, check the rest of your body, because there may be other ticks on you, and take any off. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) gives the same method: fine-tipped tweezers or a tick-removal tool, grip the tick close to the skin, and pull upwards slowly and firmly; the NHS adds that you should take care not to squeeze or crush the tick, and to clean the bite with antiseptic or soap and water. If you cannot see or reach the tick, ask someone to help, so it comes off as soon as possible, not after an appointment.

Leave out heat, nail polish, petroleum jelly and other substances. The CDC says its aim is to get the tick off as quickly as possible. Some people say the same: no heat, no matches and no twisting, because twisting and burning can leave parts behind or make the tick spit germs into the skin.

After it is out, write down the date and where you think you picked the tick up, on your phone or a calendar; the CDC says your doctor will want the bite, when it happened and where you most likely got the tick. On keeping the tick, the CDC’s page for the public says testing a tick is in general not recommended and that you should not wait for a tick test before starting treatment if you become ill. It gives four reasons: the labs that test ticks are not held to the standards of labs that test patients, a positive result does not mean you were infected, a negative result can give false comfort because a different tick may have bitten you, and if you do get ill you will probably have symptoms before the result is back. Some people argue the opposite and want the tick tested later. The CDC’s guide for clinicians says the type of tick and how swollen it is with blood help a clinician decide whether one preventive dose of antibiotic is right for you, so a sealed container or a clear photo does no harm; keep a tick sealed and out of reach of children and pets. In the UK, UKHSA says you can send a tick to its Tick Surveillance Scheme, which tracks ticks across the country, but it does not provide tick-testing services, and the results of commercial tick tests should not be used to decide diagnosis or treatment.

For the next few weeks, the CDC says that if you develop a rash or a fever within several weeks of removing a tick, you should see your doctor and tell them about the bite, when it happened and where you most likely got the tick. It says the Lyme disease rash starts at the bite after 3 to 30 days (about 7 days on average), spreads over several days, may feel warm but is rarely itchy or painful, can grow to 12 inches (30 cm) or more across, sometimes clears in the middle to look like a bull’s-eye, and does not always look like a classic bull’s-eye. A small bump or redness right at the bite that looks like a mosquito bite is common, goes away in 1 to 2 days and is not a sign of Lyme disease. UKHSA says a small red patch at the bite can last a few days and is a common reaction, and to contact your GP promptly if it does not fade or begins to spread outwards. The NHS says there is not always an obvious rash, so see a doctor for flu-like illness after a bite too; it says the rash usually appears within 1 to 4 weeks but can appear up to 3 months after a bite, and can be harder to see on brown and black skin, where it may look like a bruise. It lists flu-like symptoms as a high temperature, headache, muscle and joint pain and tiredness, a few days or weeks after the bite. In England, the NHS says not all ticks carry the bacteria that cause Lyme disease and the chance of getting ill is low, so watching for a rash or flu-like illness is the main job afterwards. The CDC says that in general an infected tick has to be attached for more than 24 hours to pass on the bacteria that cause Lyme disease in the US, so taking it off quickly lowers the chance. If you cannot tell how long a tick was there, say so to the doctor.

In the US, the CDC’s guide for clinicians says one dose of the antibiotic doxycycline can lower the risk of Lyme disease after a tick bite, but only when all of these hold: the bite was in a state where Lyme disease is common, or where more than a fifth of ticks are infected; the tick is an adult or young (nymph) blacklegged tick, also called a deer tick; it was attached for an estimated 36 hours or more; the dose starts within 72 hours of taking the tick off; and the person has no reason to avoid doxycycline. The CDC says to ask your healthcare provider whether antibiotics after a tick bite are appropriate for you, and if you were bitten where Lyme disease is common, that means asking within 72 hours of taking the tick off; how long the tick was attached is a clinician’s estimate from how swollen it is or when you were likely exposed. The CDC says this dose has not been shown to prevent other tickborne diseases. A doctor decides whether it fits you, and the page could not check the UK’s practice on it, so a UK reader who is worried can ask a GP or NHS 111. The CDC’s guide for clinicians says to start treatment for a suspected tickborne illness as soon as possible and not to wait for laboratory results, which may miss early illness.

If it is your dog or cat, the FDA says pets can bring ticks into the home, exposing you and your family to a bite, and that ticks can make pets ill too. A dog’s tick product is not for a cat. The FDA says: if the product is for dogs, do not use it on cats. The ASPCA says cats are sensitive to permethrin, which is common in dog tick products, and that exposure can cause unsteadiness, muscle tremors and, in severe cases, seizures. The UK Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) says that if even a small part of a dog spot-on is put on a cat, the cat could quickly become very unwell and may die, and to keep cats away from a newly treated dog and stop them licking or grooming it. If a dog tick product has gone on a cat, the VMD says to wash it off with water and a mild detergent, get the cat to a vet right away and take the packaging with you; in the US you can also call the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center on (888) 426-4435, and a fee may apply, or the Pet Poison Helpline on (855) 764-7661, any hour, which charges an $89 fee per incident. The FDA says to treat one pet at a time and keep the treated animal apart until the product dries, and its advice for any product is to involve your vet in the choice, read the label and package insert, and match the product to your pet’s species, life stage and weight. One person says raw garlic helped keep ticks off a dog; the ASPCA lists garlic as toxic to dogs and cats. The page does not cover taking an attached tick off an adult pet; a vet can show you. If your pet has been ill since a tick or flea product was used, the FDA says to call your vet right away.

On cost: taking the tick out costs nothing. In the UK, NHS 111 is the number the NHS gives for urgent advice. For a rash or fever afterwards in the US, a community health center charges on a sliding scale based on what you can pay, whether or not you have insurance, and you can find one on the US government’s health center finder. One person says an urgent care clinic, a retail clinic or a telehealth visit can prescribe antibiotics without an emergency room bill; a clinician decides whether that fits your symptoms, and trouble breathing, chest pain or a sudden drooping face still mean calling 911 or 999. For a pet, one person says a vet may give free samples of tick tablets if you explain you cannot afford the usual price. Some people warn that the cheapest store-brand products made their pets very sick or did not work, so read the label and match it to your pet’s species and weight, and ask a vet if you are unsure.

Who this is not for. If you already have a fever, a rash or the other signs above, this is not the answer to wait on: call a doctor today, and use 911 or 999 if the signs are severe. If you live somewhere other than the US or the UK, the ticks and the risks may differ, so check your own health department. If the worry is about going outdoors at all, UKHSA says the majority of tick bites do not result in illness, and that removing an infected tick promptly lowers the risk of passing on disease.