Microchips reunite lost pets with owners

Using microchips to identify your pet has become all the rage. And for good reason.

Animal shelters are overrun with lost pets. Good dogs and cats that obviously belonged to someone at some time frequently find themselves in the hands of animal control.

With limited space, over-crowded shelters and paper-thin resources, many lost pets are sadly destroyed before their owners can ever be located. Statistics show that one in three pets will become lost at some time in their lives, and without identification many of them will never find their way home.

Animal control officers hate it and it’s so preventable. I’m a firm believer in the old-fashioned collar and tag. It’s a clearly visual form of identification that links you and your beloved pet.

However, collars can slip, tags can come loose or be removed by pet thieves. Microchips are a more permanent form of identification.

Microchips are about the shape and size of a grain of rice. Each chip carries a unique serial number that links your pet to you. Microchips are traditionally injected under the pet’s skin with a needle, much like a traditional vaccine. It’s a relatively painless procedure and can be performed during a routine office visit. Once implanted, the chip can be identified with a hand-held scanner.

Microchip scanners look like the inventory scanners that store clerks use and, in essence, they work the same way. Animal shelters, humane organizations and veterinarians nationwide are equipped to scan all unidentified pets, greatly increasing the chance that a lost pet will be reunited quickly with its family.

One of the nice things about microchips is that they can be updated. In other words, although the number that links your pet to you is constant, the database in which the number is registered is not.

Chip information such as address and phone number can be updated as often as required. Rather than going to a store and purchasing a new tag every time you move or change your telephone number, simply pick up the phone or log on to the Internet.

Microchips, however, aren’t without flaws. One of the major obstacles facing the microchip industry has been that each chip manufacturer also has its own scanner. That means scanners from one company can’t always read chips from another — a major problem.

I hate to think of a microchipped pet getting lost during a single scan. But on the other hand, you can’t expect shelters and veterinarians to scan each lost pet with every scanner on the market.
Recently, Schering-Plough, a major U.S. drug manufacturer, stepped up the microchip game when it released its new HomeAgain WorldScan scanner and Home Again Pet Recovery System.

This new scanner is designed to read microchips from other U.S. manufacturers, as well as some international chips. This is a major improvement in the microchip industry, because, with multiple chip makers and multiple chip scanners, shelters and veterinarians couldn’t always be sure they weren’t missing an oddball chip. Home Again also links important data to chips like current rabies and other vaccination history, your pet’s veterinarian’s name and medical alerts and important required prescriptions.

In addition, it provides 24-hour emergency veterinary assistance and an active recovery system, which will notify local shelters and veterinarians in the event your pet is lost.
Home Again also allows pet owners with alternate manufactured chips to register in its Home Again Pet Recovery System. This negates the need for pets to be re-chipped, something owners may be reluctant to do.

I still believe in the old-fashioned collar and tag. I’m sure I always will. But my pets also have a microchip, just in case.

Dr. Melissa Wheeler owns Central Carolina Veterinary Hospital and 24 Hour Animal Emergency in Burlington. For more information call 229-0060.


source: www.thetimesnews.com