What to Do After a Dog Bite

Reviewed by our editorial team. Updated May 2026.

The steps you take in the 24–48 hours after a dog bite significantly affect both your immediate health outcome and the strength of any legal claim. Dog bite infections can escalate quickly; evidence disappears; witnesses scatter; and animal control investigations depend on prompt reporting. This guide walks through the critical steps in order.

Step 1: Seek Medical Treatment Immediately

Dog bites cause deep puncture wounds with a high infection risk. Dog mouths harbor bacteria including Pasteurella, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, and Capnocytophaga — all capable of causing serious infections that, if untreated, can spread to bone (osteomyelitis) or become systemic (sepsis). Even a bite that appears minor on the surface can track deep into tissue. Do not delay medical treatment to evaluate the severity at home. If bleeding is severe, call 911 or get to an emergency room immediately. For less severe bites, an urgent care center or emergency department visit the same day is appropriate.

At the medical visit: explain exactly how the injury occurred (dog bite, location of the bite, circumstances); get a tetanus booster if your vaccination is not current; ask the provider to document the wound thoroughly including size, depth, and location; and ask for antibiotic prophylaxis, which is typically prescribed for dog bite wounds given the infection risk. If the dog’s vaccination status is unknown, the treating provider will initiate the rabies risk assessment process.

Medical records from this first visit are the foundation of your damages case. Every subsequent treatment — wound checks, suture removal, antibiotic follow-ups, specialist referrals — should be documented. Gaps in treatment give insurers ammunition to argue the injury was less serious than claimed. Follow all treatment recommendations.

Step 2: Identify the Dog and Owner

Before leaving the scene, collect the following information from the dog owner:

If the dog owner refuses to provide information or the dog ran off without an identified owner, call animal control immediately. Animal control can identify stray dogs through microchip scanning and can pursue the owner for failure to provide vaccination information — a violation of animal control ordinances in most jurisdictions. If the owner’s identity is unknown and cannot be determined, your own health insurance becomes the primary resource for medical treatment, and an uninsured motorist or similar insurance policy may provide additional coverage in some states.

Step 3: Understand the Rabies Protocol

Rabies is a fatal disease without post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). If the biting dog’s rabies vaccination status is unknown, unverifiable, or if the dog cannot be located and quarantined for a 10-day observation period, the public health recommendation is PEP — a series of four injections given over 14 days. This is not a trivial matter: PEP is expensive ($3,000–$10,000 out of pocket without insurance, and partial insurance coverage is common), time-consuming, and involves intramuscular injections. But the alternative — untreated rabies exposure — is uniformly fatal once symptoms develop.

The treating physician will consult with local public health authorities on whether PEP is indicated based on: the geographic area (regional rabies prevalence), the dog’s vaccination status and ownership status, the type of exposure, and whether the dog can be quarantined for observation. A quarantined dog that remains healthy for 10 days post-bite is extremely unlikely to have transmitted rabies. An unvaccinated, unidentifiable stray dog in an area with animal rabies warrants a different risk assessment than a known, vaccinated pet dog.

All PEP costs are recoverable as medical damages in a dog bite claim. Include all PEP-related expenses — injections, physician visits, travel — in your damages documentation.

Step 4: Report the Bite to Animal Control

Report the dog bite to local animal control or the health department promptly — ideally within 24 hours of the incident. Most jurisdictions require that dog bites be reported to animal control; some impose reporting requirements on medical providers as well as victims. Animal control will:

Request a copy of the animal control incident report for your records. This report is discoverable in civil litigation and frequently contains information about the dog’s history that is not otherwise easily accessible.

Step 5: Document and Preserve Evidence

Begin evidence documentation immediately and continue throughout the healing process:

Step 6: Consult a Personal Injury Attorney

For any bite requiring medical treatment, sutures, or producing visible scarring, consulting a personal injury attorney is worthwhile. Most dog bite attorneys work on contingency — 33% of the recovery in most jurisdictions — meaning you pay nothing unless you win. The attorney handles the insurer communications, negotiates the settlement, and takes on the risk of litigation if the insurer undervalues the claim.

An experienced personal injury attorney brings several advantages: they know the local insurance adjusters and their settlement patterns; they can identify all available insurance coverage (homeowners, umbrella, potentially renters insurance); they know how to build and present the damages case for maximum value; and they understand the local court’s treatment of provocation defenses, strict liability exceptions, and damages for scarring and disfigurement. The difference between represented and unrepresented dog bite victims in average settlement outcomes is documented — represented victims consistently recover significantly more, even after the contingency fee.

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