As a pet sitter, I don’t know how many times we have had this conversation with our client’s regarding their pets. One of the questions on our Pet Profile Sheet is: Is your pet micro chipped?
A collar with a tag and a micro chip is the best combination for your pet’s safety. A collar alone, well… just isn’t enough, because collars can come off and tags can get lost or both can be removed by someone. I remember, in the good old days, my grandparents use to write their phone number on the collar with a magic marker!
Fact: 1 out of 3 pets will get LOST in their lifetime!
If you are not familiar with the micro chip, there are just a few things to know. It is the size of a grain of rice. It is injected into the neck, like a vaccine would be injected. The chip itself has a code manufacture/number combination, only assigned to one pet! It is NOT a tracking devise, but a tracking system.
There are two components to helping a micro chip work properly. First, YOU have to register the chip and keep it updated. As stated, the chip has a manufacture/number combination for your pet, but if you do not register your pet with the proper/updated information the process is less effective. Also, so many times we find our client’s have not changed the registration from the shelter/rescue/Veterinarian information to their personal information. Not keeping it updated will prolong the process to get your pet back into your possession.
Fact: A tad over 50% of pets get RETURNED with an update registered microchip!
Second, not all micro chip readers are universal. A micro chip has to be read with a device that can scan the code from the chip. There are different manufactures that make micro chips, hence a reader must be able to read every companies chips. Most Veterinaries’ office or a Human Society has the proper scanners to read micro chips. An example micro chip code: AVID 000000000, in this case AVID is the manufacture and the 9 digit number is the code. (Codes can have 9, 10 or 15 sets of numbers.)
Fact: The chip can move a bit, depending on how it attaches to the skin, so the scanning process might be from side to side of the neck and down the front legs of the pet- not where it was initially injected.
Hopefully, right about now you are making an appointment to get your pet micro chipped or running to find your paperwork on the micro chip you already have to see if it is updated!
Fact: You can look up your pet’s microchip at www.aaha.com
(The AAHA Universal Pet Microchip Lookup Tool is NOT a microchip registry—it is an internet-based application to assist in the identification of those registries on which a particular microchip is registered, or otherwise provide the chip’s manufacturer.-www.aaha.org) Resource: Dog Microchip: Why Microchipping Your Dog Is a Major Safety Measure (akc.org)
Black Paw 101: If you are a client of ours- That is a FREE service we provide, as we have a universal chip reader!
Bobbi Wilson, CPPS since 2018