This week (April 17th-23rd) is National Pet ID Week!
Here at Woodland Veterinary Hospital, we use our universal microchip scanner to help identify lost pets on a weekly basis, and it’s very rewarding and exciting when we can help reunite those pets with their owners! A microchip is one of the most simple and permanent ways to help identify a pet as your own, and unlike a collar and tags, there is no risk of it falling off if a pet gets lost or caught in anything!
We recently had a stray cat come in as a newly adopted pet, and imagine our surprise when an ID number came up during a routine microchip scan! It turns out that the kitty had been missing from a nearby town for over two years!
Did you know that a pet’s microchip is the size of a grain of rice? It can be implanted during a quick technician visit, or even during a routine exam or surgery. Not only is it a quick and easy way to help ensure a lost pet is returned safely home, but it’s also a great way to help prove ownership of a pet! However, there is a step that YOU (the client) need to also take in order to make sure this can happen.
You see, a microchip’s whole purpose is to store a unique ID number that is used to retrieve a pet parent’s contact information—it differs from a Global Positioning System, which is used for tracking, and requires a power source such as a battery. When a microchip scanner is passed over the skin of a microchipped pet, the implanted microchip emits an RF (radio frequency) signal. The scanner reads the microchip’s unique ID code. The microchip registry is called, and the registry company uses the ID number to retrieve the pet parent’s contact information from the pet recovery database.
This means that once we have implanted a chip in your pet, you need to take the next step and make sure to register your information with the microchip database. Otherwise, when the chip is scanned, the only thing the microchip company will be able to tell us is what facility the chip was implanted at.
If you think your pet is microchipped but aren’t sure, bring them down! Our client care team will be happy to scan for a chip – it usually only takes a few seconds to locate!
http://www.hngn.com/articles/86679/20150422/national-pet-id-week-why-every-pet-should-have-a-collar-or-microchip.htm
