The First 24 Hours After a Dog Bite
Nothing here is a substitute for medical care. Get treated first. This is what to do around that.
The reason it is worth reading now rather than later: several of these become impossible within days, and their absence is what quietly weakens otherwise strong claims.
1. Get medical attention, and say it was a dog
Go even if it looks minor. Dog bites drive bacteria deep, and infection is the most common complication — often appearing a day or two later, well after the wound looked fine.
Say clearly that a dog caused it, and make sure that is what goes in the record. “I fell and cut my hand” and “a dog bit my hand” produce very different medical notes, and that note is frequently the most persuasive document in the whole file.
If a dog knocked you down without biting, say that too. Florida has a separate statute covering damage that is not a bite, and the record needs to tie the fall to the dog.
Since 2025, whether animal control must confiscate the dog turns partly on a graded assessment of bite severity. How your wound is described matters beyond your own care.
2. Photograph the injury, today and tomorrow
This is the single most time-limited thing on the list.
The images that matter most in a scarring case are taken in the first days — before sutures come out, before the wound closes, before the colour fades. Nobody can recreate them later, and “I have a scar now” is a far weaker exhibit than a sequence showing what it looked like on day one.
- Photograph in good light, from several angles
- Include something for scale
- Photograph again each day for the first week
- Keep the originals with their timestamps — do not crop, filter, or re-save
3. Identify the dog and the owner
Get the owner’s name, address, phone, and — if they will give it — their homeowners or renters insurance carrier. That request is normal; their policy obliges them to report the incident anyway.
If the dog was loose and you do not know whose it is, photograph the dog and note exactly where it went. Animal control can often trace it from a description and a location.
4. Photograph the scene before it changes
Signs get replaced. Gates get fixed. Fences get mended. Sometimes innocently, sometimes not.
- Any posted sign, with its exact wording legible
- The same sign from where you were actually standing, at your eye level — a tight crop proves the words but destroys the question of whether it was prominent and readable
- The gate, its latch, the fence, and any tether or run
- The approach you used, and where the dog came from
Why this matters: Florida’s “Bad Dog” sign provision can eliminate liability entirely, and every element of it is a fact question decided on what was there that day.
5. Get witness details on the spot
People who stop to help are findable now and unfindable in a month. Name and mobile number is enough. Do not assume you will be able to track them down later — you will not.
6. Report it to animal services
Two separate agencies handle this in Florida and contacting one does not notify the other. Who to call and what to ask.
Reporting is not suing and commits you to nothing. It creates a dated, independent record while the facts are still checkable, and it is where you find out whether the dog already has a history — which changes the case substantially.
7. Write down what happened, while it is fresh
Memory degrades faster and more confidently than people expect. Do it today. A structured log is here.
8. Start a folder and keep everything
Discharge papers, prescriptions, receipts, mileage to appointments, days missed from work, and any message from the owner or their insurer. Put it all in one place from the start; reconstructing it in six months is miserable and incomplete.
What not to do
Do not give a recorded statement to the other side’s insurer yet. Those questions are aimed at establishing your share of fault, which in Florida reduces recovery by a percentage — and above 50% can bar it entirely.
Do not sign anything without reading it. A release ends the claim permanently, including for costs that have not arrived yet.
Do not speculate about what you should have done differently. People who have been hurt second-guess themselves out loud. “I probably got too close” is an opinion, not a memory, and it will be quoted back as an admission.
Do not post about it publicly. Photographs and commentary on social media are routinely pulled into claims files.