Microchips

Sadly every day many pets go missing through out the country and happily some are found, but many never get reunited with their owners because of lack of identification. Some of these strays get rehomed via the rescue centres but some inevitably have to be humanely destroyed.

How ever well your animals are trained or seem to stay close to you they can easily get lost while out for a walk, chasing after rabbits or perhaps slip through an open garden gate or be knocked down on the road and unable to get back home, this particularly with cats, or wander off while in an unfamiliar place on holiday.

A Microchip is a small inert cylinder about the size of a grain of rice that carries a unique code for your pet. It is injected under the skin just behind the back of the neck (for a dog or cat, but elsewhere in other species).

The code is read by a handheld scanner, these are routinely used by the rescue kennels, dog wardens, RSPCA, Cats Protection League etc as well as Veterinary surgeries.

When a stray animal turns up at our surgeries it is scanned, the unique identity number from the scanner is entered into our practice computer, if the animal is registered with us the owners name and phone number appears and they receive a welcome call to say that their pet has been found, if the animal is not registered with us then we phone up a national database with the i.d. number to get the owners details.

The microchip cannot stop the animal straying and you must still take the greatest of care but should he or she go wandering off then they have the best possible chance of being returned to you quickly.

A chip can be implanted at any time from a few week old puppy to an ageing dog, at a routine vaccination or at any convenient time, for example whilst being neutered.