Micro Chips

Does your dog or cat ever take off and come home without their collar? Have you thought of other ways to identify your pet? If so you should consider getting a microchip. When a stray dog or a cat is found wandering the roads they are usually taken to a shelter or a veterinary clinic. If an animal is presented without identification ie: tags, and or a collar one of the first things we do is scan it for a microchip. A microchip is a small electronic chip enclosed in a glass cylinder that we implant under their skin, this chip is no larger than a grain of rice. The microchip gives off a frequency of radio waves which is what we are scanning for. When the scanner reads this frequency it will display the serial code for that particular chip. We enter that serial code into a data base and it will tell us who that animal belongs to. It will pull up the animals profile which will have the owners information and allow us to contact them and reunite them with their pet.

The micro chipping process is very easy, it is administered like a typical vaccine just under the skin between the shoulder blades. Unfortunately the needle is a little larger because it needs to deliver the chip safely and securely under the skin-however they tolerate it very well. Typically with a younger animal we prefer to wait until they are being spayed/neutered to have this done. They are already sedated and wont feel a thing.

Microchips are very affordable and have had great success stories to date. Studies have been conducted with approximately 7,700 stray shelter animals-showing that only 21.9% of dogs without microchips were returned back to their homes whereas 51.2% of dogs that had been microchipped were reunited with their families.

It is very important that you take the time to register your chip after it has been administered. Your animal will now have their unique new serial number however, this information won't tell us much unless you have properly filled out the information online. Micro chips have understandably become very popular and recommended.

https://www.avma.org/Events/pethealth/Pages/Check-the-Chip-Day.aspx