Each year, thousands of pets go missing, and many don’t make it back home. It is estimated that up to 8 million animals end up in shelters every year. Unfortunately, only 15-20% of dogs and less than 2% of cats are ever reclaimed by their owners. Even if your pet wears a collar and Id tags, collars can break off, be removed or lost. These forms are great but it may not be reliable enough. One of the ways to increase the chances of finding your lost pet is having it microchipped. A microchip is placed under the skin, usually between the shoulder blades. The chip itself is about the size of a grain of rice. The chip has a unique number on it that can be picked up and read by a scanner. When a microchip is implanted, we register your pet for you into a national pet recovery database. Veterinary hospitals, animal shelters and animal control offices across the country are equipped with special electronic scanners that can detect the microchip and read the identification number. If a lost pet is picked up by animal control or found by a Good Samaritan and presented to any of those facilities, the pet is immediately scanned to determine if it has a microchip. A toll-free phone call to the pet recovery database alerts the microchip company that a lost pet has been identified. The pet owner can then be contacted and reunited with his or her pet. It is extremely important that a pet owner keep their information up to date. If you relocate or change your phone number or emergency contact person, you must contact the database and update your information. We can give you the information you need to contact which company registered your pet. Young puppies and kittens can receive microchips, but even if your pet is already an adult, you should consider microchipping. Even indoor pets can get outside accidentally and get lost, so if you’re relying on other forms of identification, you could be placing your pet at risk. Microchipping is a safe, effective way to help ensure your pet’s return if the unthinkable happens. Here is a link if your pet has a microchip and you know the number but just want to make sure your information is up to date. It will identify the company your pet is registered through and give you a contact number to reach them. http://www.petmicrochiplookup.org
