Microchipping your pets

Every day, we hear stories of people who have lost their furry companions. They've gone to the local shelter, put up reward notices, and all of it to no avail. Not every lost pet is brought to the closest shelter. Many times, kind-hearted people who don't want these foundlings to end up being euthanized at the shelter take them in. These people usually bring these lost pets to their veterinarian to be examined. Losing a pet is horrible, but there is a very good, cheap, and dependable way to be reunited. Collars can be lost. Tattooing is permanent, but not uniform so are not understood. Microchipping is permanent and follows a uniform global standard called PETrac, which is a database of information on all microchipped pets, regardless of the chip manufacturer. Many Veterinary Medical associations back this database.

Microchipping is not Lo-Jack. There is no satellite tracking of your pet. Rather, a special scanner is run over your pet, and a number is read from the scanner. This number is unique to your pet. The company is notified, 24 hours a day, and VETrac is accessed. Your address and phone number, as well as the veterinarian who implanted the chip is found, and the owner of the pet is notified. These scanners read a variety of chips from different companies and are in all of the animal shelters and most veterinary offices. All stray pets are routinely scanned. Implantation is easy. The chip is small enough to inject via a syringe into the muscles between the shoulder blades. There is a one-time implantation fee and a one-time registration fee. We recommend having the chip scanned yearly to make sure it is still active. The chips are active for well over 10 years in most cases. Any species can be microchipped, even birds or fish. We use the AVID FriendChip here at our hospital. Since the needle on the syringe is a little big, we recommend microchipping during spays, neuters, or any other anesthetic procedure.

Microchipping is safe, easy, and effective. Every year thousands of pets are reunited nationally by the microchip. There is even an effort being made in the state assembly to make microchipping mandatory for licensure to reduce shelter crowding. If you would like to get more information on the AVID Microchip, please pick up a handout at our office or go to www.avidid.com.