Ticks on Dogs in Australia: Types, Symptoms, Removal and Prevention

You're running your hands over your dog, and your fingers stop on something that shouldn't be there.

Finding a tick is unsettling, and the questions come fast. Is it the dangerous kind? Did I get it all out? Has it been there long enough to matter?

In certain parts of Australia, those questions carry real weight, because one of our ticks can paralyse a dog within days. And getting the tick off doesn't end it. Signs can appear for up to two days afterwards.

If your dog is wobbly, breathing differently or sounding unusual, stop reading and call your vet. If they seem well, I'll walk you through how to find ticks, get them off safely, and how to keep them away.

The first signs of tick paralysis in dogs are wobbly back legs, a changed or lost bark, and gagging or retching. Any of them means a vet immediately, even if you have already removed the tick.

Knowing when to act is the hardest part of this for most pet parents, so here is the full list. If your dog shows any of these, this is an emergency and not something to watch overnight:

• Wobbly, weak or uncoordinated back legs
• A changed, hoarse or absent bark
• Gagging, retching or bringing up food and water
• Laboured, grunting or noisy breathing
• Unable to stand, or collapsed

Call your vet or the nearest emergency clinic before you leave the house. They will want to prepare for you, and they may direct you somewhere better equipped.

The stages of tick paralysis, and what to do at each

Tick paralysis progresses through recognisable stages. Knowing which one you are looking at tells you how fast you need to move.

Once signs begin, the picture can change within hours rather than days. A dog that is only mildly wobbly in the morning can be struggling to breathe by evening. Treat the early stage as a same-day vet visit.

Slower signs that still need a vet

Not every tick illness announces itself in a day. A dog carrying a brown dog tick infection can develop fever, tiredness, appetite loss, bruising or nosebleeds over weeks. These signs are easy to attribute to something else, so mention any recent tick or northern travel when you see your vet.

Do not offer food or water

If your dog is gagging, regurgitating or having any trouble swallowing, do not give food or water. The toxin affects the muscles of the throat and oesophagus, so anything swallowed can be regurgitated and end up in the lungs. Aspiration pneumonia is one of the more common complications, and it is largely avoidable.

What to tell your vet when you call

Say when you found the tick, when the signs started, and which signs you have seen. Say whether the tick is off and whether you still have it. Mention any tick preventative your dog is on and when it was last given.

Use fine-point tweezers and pull straight up, then have your dog checked even if they seem well.

The method is the same whichever tick you have found.

What you need

Fine-point tweezers taper to a narrow tip, unlike the blunt flat-ended kind in most bathroom cabinets. Blunt tweezers grip the tick's body instead of its head, which is what you want to avoid. A purpose-made tick hook works well too, and is worth keeping in the car if you walk in tick country.

The method

1. Part the coat so you can see where the tick meets your dog's skin.
2. Grip the tick as close to the skin as you can, aiming for the mouthparts rather than the swollen body.
3. Pull straight up in one steady, even motion. Do not twist, jerk or wiggle.
4. Put the tick in a sealed container or a zip-lock bag so your vet can identify it.
5. Check the bite site, then search the rest of your dog for more ticks.

The reason the pull matters is mechanical. Twisting or squeezing tears the tick and pushes more of its saliva, and therefore more toxin and bacteria, into the bite site. A clean vertical pull lifts the whole tick out with the least disturbance.

Knowing the species changes what your vet watches for, which is why step 4 is worth the effort.

What not to do

Do not apply petroleum jelly, methylated spirits, nail polish, alcohol or a lit match. These methods are still widely repeated, and they share one flaw. Each irritates the tick while it is still attached, which encourages it to salivate more into the wound. Do not squeeze the tick's body at any point.

If the mouthparts stay behind

Sometimes a small dark fragment remains in the skin. This is not an emergency and it does not keep releasing toxin. Clean the area and leave it alone, the way you would a splinter your body will push out. Contact your vet if the site becomes red, swollen or painful over the following days.

If you cannot remove it

Stop and go to your vet if the tick is somewhere awkward, such as an eyelid or the ear canal. Do the same if your dog will not let you near it. A badly removed tick does more harm than one removed a little later with the right equipment.

After you remove a tick, keep your dog quiet and watch them closely for 24 to 48 hours, because paralysis signs can appear or get worse even once the tick is gone.

Removing the tick stops more toxin going in. It does not clear the toxin already circulating, and taking the tick off does not immediately halt the illness, which is why dogs can deteriorate after what feels like the crisis has passed. Signs can appear or worsen across the 24 to 48 hours after the tick comes off.

Search your dog properly for more ticks now. Finding one tick means your dog has been somewhere ticks are, and dogs frequently carry several. Work through the whole body rather than just the area around the first one.

Mark the bite site so you can find it again, and note the time you removed the tick. Both help your vet.

Keep your dog quiet and cool for the next day or two. Skip the walk, skip the bath, and skip anything strenuous. If treatment does become necessary, expect a period of rest and restricted activity afterwards, because the effects on the heart and the oesophagus can outlast the obvious weakness. Your vet will tell you how long, based on how affected your dog was.

You can identify a paralysis tick by its legs, which sit in two clusters at opposite ends of the body with a clear gap between them. If you are not certain what you have found, treat it as a paralysis tick.

The practical tell on a paralysis tick is the legs. The front two pairs and the back pair sit at the ends of the body, leaving a clear gap in the middle. The legs are pale brown against a darker body.

Brown dog ticks have evenly spaced legs and a more uniform reddish-brown colour. They are the tick you are most likely to find in northern and inland Australia, and often in kennels or on hard surfaces rather than in bushland. Bush ticks are smaller, dark, and usually turn up in numbers rather than singly.

Engorgement changes everything about how a tick looks. A fully fed tick swells into a smooth grey-blue sac many times its original size. The features you would use to identify it become hard to see. This is the strongest reason to keep the tick after removing it.

Treating tick paralysis means giving your dog an antidote called tick antiserum, then keeping them in hospital for a few days while the toxin wears off.

Tick antiserum contains antibodies that neutralise circulating toxin. It cannot undo toxin that has already bound to nerve endings, which is the main reason early treatment works better than late treatment. Your vet gives it slowly and under close observation, because reactions are possible.

Alongside the antiserum, your dog is likely to be sedated, clipped so every remaining tick can be found, and given oxygen if breathing is affected. Severely affected dogs sometimes need mechanical ventilation. Vets also monitor the heart and the oesophagus, and manage the risk of pneumonia from regurgitation.

What it costs in Australia

PetSure's 2025 claims data puts the average tick paralysis treatment cost for dogs at $3,484, with the largest single claim reaching $59,147. An uncomplicated case caught early sits well below the average. Cases needing intensive care and ventilation are what pull the top end up.

That is worth knowing before the season starts rather than during it. Monthly tick prevention costs a small fraction of a single treated case, which is useful to know when you are planning the year.

Most dogs treated early recover well. A study of 506 Australian dogs with tick paralysis found that how advanced a dog was on arrival was the strongest predictor of whether it survived, which is the clearest argument there is for going early. Some dogs die despite excellent care, and it is more honest to say that than to imply treatment always works.

Brown dog ticks in northern Australia can transmit ehrlichiosis, a bacterial disease that can be fatal without treatment.

Ehrlichiosis is caused by the bacterium Ehrlichia canis and is spread only by the brown dog tick. It was first detected in Australia in May 2020 and has since been diagnosed in the northern parts of Western Australia and South Australia, throughout the Northern Territory, and in north-western Queensland.

Your dog cannot catch it from another dog directly, and people cannot catch it from dogs. For pet dogs, a tick bite is effectively the only route.

Signs of ehrlichiosis

The signs build more slowly than tick paralysis and are easier to miss. Watch for fever, lethargy, appetite loss and weight loss. Bleeding problems are characteristic, including nosebleeds, bruising and pale gums. Some dogs develop cloudy or painful eyes, laboured breathing, or lameness.

Untreated infection can be fatal, and early treatment gives the best chance of recovery. Ehrlichiosis is a notifiable disease in Australia, which means your vet is legally required to report a case to their state or territory authority.

If you are travelling north with your dog

There is no vaccine, so tick prevention is the whole defence. Australian government guidance is to use a product that both kills and repels ticks for dogs living in or travelling through brown dog tick areas, and to speak to your vet about which product and how often.

Be especially careful where dogs gather, including caravan parks and fuel stops. Check your dog for ticks daily while you are away, and start prevention before you leave rather than on arrival.

Paralysis ticks live along the east coast, from far north Queensland to eastern Victoria, while brown dog ticks dominate the north and inland. Numbers peak in spring and early summer. The tick that matters in Cairns is not the tick that matters in Broome.

The east coast: paralysis ticks

Risk is highest in humid coastal bushland and the suburbs backing onto it. In New South Wales that includes the Northern Beaches, the Central Coast and the Illawarra. In Queensland it covers the strip from Cairns and Townsville down through the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

The southern paralysis tick causes the same illness in Tasmania, southern Victoria and south-eastern New South Wales.

Northern and inland Australia: brown dog ticks

Paralysis ticks are effectively absent from Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. The tick that matters there is the brown dog tick, and the concern is ehrlichiosis rather than paralysis. Dogs in Darwin, Broome, Kununurra and much of outback Queensland need year-round tick prevention for that reason.

Moving a dog between states? Talk to your vet before you travel, and check current rules for moving dogs out of ehrlichiosis-affected areas.

Season, and why "tick season" oversells the safe months

Adult paralysis ticks are most abundant in spring and early summer, which is where the familiar September to March window comes from. Treating that as a season with a clear end is risky. Ticks are active year-round in the warmer parts of the country. Numbers also spike after rain and in humid weather, and the larvae and nymphs that attach to dogs peak at different times from the adults.

Brown dog ticks are active year-round across northern Australia, so prevention there is not seasonal at all.

Tick prevention for dogs means a registered product plus a daily check through the season. Most products kill ticks after they attach rather than keeping them off, which is why the two work together.

I get asked about this a lot, and I understand why. The way tick products are described implies a barrier. What most products actually do is kill ticks quickly once they attach and start feeding. 

A tick that dies within hours usually does not transmit enough toxin to paralyse a dog, which is why these products work well against the paralysis tick. It also means finding a tick on a protected dog is expected rather than a sign the product has failed.

Ehrlichiosis changes that calculation. Because the bacteria can pass during feeding, Australian government guidance for brown dog tick areas is a product that repels ticks as well as killing them. Seresto collars repel as well as kill, and are registered in Australia to reduce the risk of E. canis transmission by brown dog ticks for four months. Note that four months, not the collar's eight-month paralysis tick claim. If ehrlichiosis is your reason for using it, change the collar every four months. Ask your vet what suits your area.

Comparing the options

Chewable tablets containing the isoxazoline group of actives are the mainstay for tick prevention in Australia, and they make up most of our dog tick treatments range. They are given by mouth and, depending on the product, cover one to four months. Bravecto chews go longest between doses at three months, while NexGard and NexGard Spectra are given monthly, and Spectra adds intestinal worm and heartworm cover.

Spot-on treatments are applied to the skin between the shoulder blades. They suit dogs that will not take a tablet, though bathing and swimming can shorten how long they last.

Tick collars such as Seresto release their active ingredient slowly, covering paralysis ticks for up to eight months and brown dog and bush ticks for four. They suit dogs that are hard to dose, as long as the collar is fitted correctly and stays on.

Rinses and washes have a role in heavy infestations and after a tick is found, but they are short-acting and not a prevention plan on their own.

If you have cats in the house

Some dog tick products contain permethrin. It is safe for dogs and can be fatal to cats, and a cat does not need to be treated with it to be harmed. Grooming a recently treated dog, or sleeping pressed against one, is enough. If you have both species at home, choose a dog product without permethrin or keep the animals genuinely separated for 48 hours after treating the dog. Elanco's own advice is 48 hours, not simply until it dries. Our guide to paralysis ticks on cats covers which products are registered for them, and how differently cats show tick paralysis.

Puppies, pregnancy and swimming

Every tick product has a minimum age or weight, and some are not approved for pregnant or lactating dogs. Check the pack for your dog's weight band rather than estimating, since under-dosing is a common reason prevention underperforms. Our puppy flea and tick range is filtered to products registered for the smallest and youngest dogs. If your dog swims often, an oral product avoids the washing-off problem entirely.

If you would rather cover fleas and intestinal worms in the same product as ticks, our flea, tick and worming treatments for dogs range is where the combinations sit, and for most households one product on one schedule is easier to keep up than three.

If the choice between them is what is holding you up, our guide to the best flea, tick and worm treatments for dogs sets the options side by side on weight range, coverage and how often each is due.

If your dog has a tick and looks unwell in any way, stop reading and call your vet. I would always rather see a dog that turns out to be fine than one brought in a day late.

If you are getting ahead of the season instead, two habits matter most. Choose a preventative suited to the ticks where you live, and check your dog daily.

Both get easier once they are routine, and together they cover almost everything ticks can do.

Our guide to the best dog flea, tick and worm treatments covers how ticks fit alongside fleas, worms and heartworm in one plan.