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Have you ever been separated from your dog? For pet owners, it’s a terrible feeling. It’s like losing a child. The worry and anxiety is overwhelming.
How do you prevent this from happening? Sometimes, you can’t. BUT… you can make sure your pet is equipped with up-to-date information in the event that he/she does get separated from you.
DID YOU KNOW? ONLY 33 percent of pet owners have an ID tag on their pet. That number seems awfully low to me, but the good news is that there are other ways to identify your pet if he/she gets lost. Nowadays, there are GPS tracking devices, radio frequency identification devices, microchips and tattoos.
The most popular way to identify your pet is with a microchip.
WHAT IS A MICROCHIP?
A microchip is a unit of packaged computer circuitry that is manufactured from a material (usually silicon) at a very small scale. Each microchip has an electromagnetic transponder with a unique code that must be registered with a recovery program (HomeAgain and Avid are the two most used). Before the microchip is inserted in your pet, it is scanned to make sure the identification code matches the code that is printed on the package label. After it is inserted in your pet, it is scanned a second time to make sure it can be read.
How is a microchip inserted?
A microchip for your pet is approx. the size of a grain of rice. To insert the microchip into your pet, a needle containing the microchip is inserted between the shoulder blades of the animal. The microchip is inserted just below the skin.
Why choose a Microchip? A microchip provides a permanent way of identifying your pet. Nowadays, a lot of breeders microchip their pets before they sell them. If your pet get’s lost or stolen, a veterinary office, a shelter and humane societies are equipped with scanner’s that can scan a pet’s microchip and read the code that is located on it. A benefit of microchipping is that your pet cannot lose his/her ID.
Do I have to register my pet’s microchip? Yes!!! This is very important!! The microchip has to be registered and your current information has to be kept up-to-date in the recovery program database, otherwise the pet owner’s contact information is not available.
DID YOU KNOW? Only about 25 percent of pet owner’s actually keep their pet’s microchip registration up-t0-date.
It is VITAL that your pet’s microchip information is kept up-to-date so if your pet is lost or stolen, veterinarians and animal shelters can retrieve the contact information they need to make sure you are reunited with your pet.
How long will my pet’s microchip last? The microchip is designed to last for your dog’s lifetime. It will never deteriorate.
Should I worry about security issues? No need to worry about your personal information being compromised. A microchip only stores an identification number. If your pet is brought to a clinic or a shelter, the veterinarian would scan that identification number to find out which company has your information in their private online database. They would then contact you directly.
Is the procedure painful? Most veterinarians say the procedure is not more painful than a immunization. Some vets, however, do use a local anesthetic to help with any discomfort.
Are there any other disadvantages? One potential problem is that microchips have been known to migrate away from the injection site so they may be a little challenging to find with a scanner. It is very important that the people scanning your pet know how to correctly scan to locate a microchip… especially if that chip has moved away from the injection site.
Are there Health Concerns Related to Microchips? Usually no, but anytime something foreign is put into your pet’s body, there is a chance that the body will reject it. There has been a few cases where soft tissue tumors do develop at microchip injection sites. Just pay attention to the area where your pet has been microchipped. Feel for bumps periodically and contact your vet if you do feel a knot in that area.
My personal advice is to get identification tags for your pet (even if they wear a harness) AND microchip your pet just in case. Doing both of these helps identify your pet if they get lost and helps get your pet back home to you.
Featured image: https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/everyday-innovations/pet-microchip1.htm
Hope this helps!!
Until next time,
Hugs and Pug Kisses,
Candy
Health Concerns Related to Microchips
The primary concern any time something foreign is introduced into the body — whether it’s a microchip or, say, a metal plate to repair a fractured bone, or a transplanted organ – is the potential for the body to reject the foreign material.
There have been documented cases in veterinary medicine of sarcomas or fibrosarcomas (soft tissue tumors) developing at microchip injection sites. Research shows that between 1996 and 2006, between 0.8 and 10.2 percent of laboratory animals developed malignant tumors around or near implanted microchips. There are also two documented cases of chip-related malignancies in dogs.2
My recommendation, if you’re considering chipping your pet, is to assess how much risk there is that she will ever get out of your sight. If you have an indoor-only cat, for example, or a well-trained (responsive) dog that is always on a leash outdoors, I believe the potential risks of microchipping outweigh the benefits.
