Indies are the most common dog adopted in India and the least written about. Most guides assume a pedigree puppy from a breeder with paperwork. An adopted street dog arrives with unknown history, possible parasites, and a lifetime of street instincts. Here is the first month, in order.
An adopted Indie is not a blank slate. It has survived on the street, which means it is capable, wary, and has no idea what a closed door, a slippery floor or a mirror is for. The first two days are about safety and calm, not bonding.
Go in with questions, and get the answers in writing. This visit sets the baseline everything else builds on.
| Ask about | Why |
|---|---|
| Vaccination status | Almost always unknown. The vet will restart the series. |
| Sterilisation | A notch in the ear usually means an animal birth control programme has done it. Confirm rather than assume. |
| Parasites | Deworm and treat for ticks and fleas on this visit. |
| Tick fever screening | If the dog is thin, tired or pale-gummed, ask for a blood test. Street dogs carry it chronically. |
| Injuries and old wounds | Street dogs often have healed fractures or infected wounds nobody noticed. |
| Skin and ears | Mange, fungal infection and ear mites are all common and all treatable. |
| Age estimate | Teeth give a rough age. It matters for vaccine timing and feeding. |
Ask for a written summary and the dates for the next visits. This visit is the first page of a record that will follow the dog for its whole life.
With no documented record, a vet treats an adopted dog as unvaccinated. This is correct even if the feeder or shelter says the dog "had its shots." A verbal assurance is not a vaccination record, and the cost of assuming wrong is parvo or distemper.
For a puppy, the series starts at whatever point the age suggests. For an adult, most vets give two doses of DHPPiL three to four weeks apart and a two-dose rabies primary, then annual boosters. The full timing is in our vaccination schedule.
Until the series is complete, keep the dog off public ground where other dogs have been. That is hard with an adult Indie that is used to roaming, but it is a few weeks, and it is the window in which most preventable disease happens.
Once rabies is done, you can register the dog with your municipality, which most cities require. Our registration guide covers the process city by city.
Every adopted street dog should be treated for intestinal worms, ticks and fleas on the first visit, whether or not you have seen any. The street environment makes infestation the default.
Deworming is a tablet dosed by weight, repeated as your vet advises, usually two weeks later and then on the standard schedule. Our deworming guide covers the timing. Tick and flea treatment is a spot-on or tablet, monthly from here on.
Check the dog for ticks yourself daily for the first few weeks. Ears, neck, armpits, groin, between the toes. An adult street dog can carry dozens, and each one is a potential tick fever exposure.
Many adult Indies have already been sterilised through municipal animal birth control programmes. The sign is a small notch cut from the tip of one ear. If there is no notch, assume it has not been done and plan for it once the dog is settled and vaccinated, usually within the first couple of months.
It costs roughly 3,000 to 8,000 rupees for a male and 5,000 to 15,000 for a female at private clinics, and considerably less at government hospitals and NGO-run camps. Beyond preventing litters, it reduces roaming, which is the behaviour most likely to lose you a newly adopted street dog.
The rule of thumb is three days, three weeks, three months. For the first three days the dog is shut down, quiet, and possibly not eating much. Over three weeks it learns the routine and starts to show its personality. Around three months it feels at home.
A few things that help:
Most adopters worry in week one that the dog does not like them. It is not that. It is a capable animal working out whether this place is safe. It usually decides that it is.
A street dog arrives with no history, which means everything from the first vet visit onward is the history. The vaccination dates, the deworming dates, the sterilisation, the tick fever test result: all of it will be asked for later, by a boarding kennel, a new vet, a municipal office, or an emergency clinic at midnight.
Keep it somewhere you can produce on demand. Paper cards get lost. A photo on your phone is four thousand messages up. Pawspert's health record exists for exactly this, one place for the whole history, behind a QR code any vet can scan, starting from the day you bring the dog home.
This guide is general information, not veterinary advice. A newly adopted dog that is unwell should see a vet regardless of any schedule.
Within 48 hours of coming home. The first visit establishes a health baseline, checks for parasites and injuries, confirms or restarts vaccination, and gives you a plan. Do it before the dog has met any other pets in the house.
Yes. With no reliable record, vets treat the dog as unvaccinated and restart the core series: DHPPiL and anti-rabies. If a shelter or feeder has a written record, bring it, but a verbal assurance is not a record.
Almost certainly. Street dogs carry intestinal worms, ticks and often fleas as a matter of course. The first vet visit should include deworming and a tick and flea treatment, with a check for tick fever if the dog seems unwell.
Expect three days of shutdown, three weeks of learning the routine, and around three months to feel fully at home. The first days are often quiet and confused rather than affectionate. That is normal and not a sign the adoption is going badly.
In most Indian cities, yes, once it is vaccinated. Municipal registration usually requires a current rabies certificate, which is one more reason the first vet visit matters. Rules vary by city.
Pawspert stores your pet's vaccinations, prescriptions and visit history behind one QR code any vet can scan, and lets you book clinic, at-home or video consultations.
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