microchipping your pets... a good idea

[shorthorsemom]

Coming home from the dairy barn last night at 11 pm we spotted what we thought was a coyote on the road. Quickly saw it was a german shepherd trotting down the middle of the road. Got out of the truck and called to the dog and he came right up to us. Luckily was very friendly because he was huge. I could feel tags on his collar, got a flashlight and much to my relief I see the yellow HOMEAGAIN tag hanging on his collar. Yippee, a microchipped dog. Had to spit clean the tag to read the number, and called HOMEAGAIN to report his number. They called his owner... then connected us to the owner directly so I could tell them where I lived. In 10-15 minutes his owner was in our driveway picking up his dog. The owner said he didn't believe the first call because he had put his dog in a crate in his garage and left the garage door open a bit for his smaller dog to come and go to the bathroom in the yard. Owner was in bed asleep and his dog was wandering the streets in the middle of the night. Danger of being hit by car, or worse, eaten by coyotes. Not safe for loose dogs for many reasons.

What the owner learned last night....

double check the crate latch..

check the battery on your radio collar (dog was wearing a electric fence collar and must have walked straight through)

microchipping is good

you have nice neighbors who care to get involved and catch and leash a wandering dog (dog lived about a mile away)

Why neutering your intact male 3 year old german shepherd might be a good idea.

Anyway, happy ending. If I had not found a collar I would have taken the dog to my vet in the morning for a microchip scan.

It was nice not having to house a strange dog in my home over night since I have 5 dogs of my own.

cheers

 

[Kim P]

So glad everything turned out good! Very seldom do we get a stray that was not intentionally dumped. When we had our pit, Chief, no one dumped. If they did he ran them off. Now he is gone and we are like the dump site along with another spot about 2 miles down the road. I know once a cat came to the house. I am allergic to them. It was storming! He kept getting in the window outside. Our dog Chief was inside and going crazy! He never liked cats! After many futile attempts at shewing her away, I decided to find out where she belonged in this terrible downpour in the dark of the night! She was well taken care of. She had also been declawed so I know she had to be close. Could not find her owner. Gave her to a sweet friend who only took her bc I had no place for her and Chief would have killed her. Anyway, it would have been nice to actually have found where she belonged.

 

[shorthorsemom]

I have many pets here that were dumped. It was nice this boy had a real home. It feels good to help them find their way.

 

[bevann]

I am a big fan of microchipping.Our local kennel club(I am the only surviving founding member since 1962)gave scanners for microchipping to all animal control vehicles in our state.Now if an animal is picked up it can be scanned out in the field and returned to the owner without having to go through the local shelter.Saves time, money and less stress on the animal and the owner.

 

[lucky seven]

In January 2014 I posted that my grandson's dog went missing. Everyone searched for months, posted on facebook and all the vets and animal shelters. My daughter even consulted a physic. My grandsons teammates and teachers helped and consoled him as he grieved. During the summer they fostered a rottie then adopted her because she fit in with their 2 other dogs. In Feb my daughter and kids were here for a visit during winter break and she got a call that the there was another sighting! A man noticed a dog hanging around and the neighbors were feeding scraps. A live trap was set because of the horribly cold weather we are having this winter. It took a week but on Wed Stella was notified the dog had been caught. She went to the location and what a surprise! It was Cinco She went missing as a year old and remembered her mom. I wish I had seen the look on my grandsons face when he was picked up at school and Cinco was in the back seat. I don't know if she was chipped but she never went to anyone as she was a skittish dog. No one will ever know where she was all this time but now she is back home safe and sound, playing with her new sister. They now have 4 dogs and 2 cats and loving every minute of it.

 

[chandab]

Wow, that is awesome, I bet your grandson is ecstatic to have Cinco back.

 

[sfmini]

I always microchip my dogs.

We are grateful to the people who didn't chip our Golden, he had been hanging around a truck stop for two weeks, begging from people. Had a collar, was just miserable so we took him in. No tags, no chip. Perfectly trained dog, obedience trained, amazing manners, wonderful with the kids. He did look for his person for a few weeks, every time a pick up came up our drive, he got so happy, then sad when it wasn't his person. We've had him for several years now, sorry to his people, if they had chipped him, they would have gotten him back but we have a wonderful dog. He is a great pillow for movie watching.

 

[anoki]

Any dogs that are registered with the Canadian Kennel Club HAVE to be identifiable. Either tattoo, or now microchipping. Every puppy born on my property is microchipped before going to their new homes. With the Canadian Kennel Club, microchips are automatically registered, so there is no paying an extra fee for registering the number (which does happen with some companies). This is one area the CKC got right!!

I also went and bought a scanner, just to make sure the chips are there when puppies go (and a couple of times it's come in handy to check other dogs too).

~kathryn

 

[AngC]

It appears this topic has to do with dogs mostly.

So I'm setting up the vet stuff for this spring (shots, etc.) and I was wondering whether you can micro-chip a horse. I was planning to ask the vet people.

Does anyone do that? Is it expensive? (rough cost would be nice.)

And if anyone micro-chips horses, where does it go? How is the chip inserted? Potential trauma to horse?

Sorry if this is a dumb question; we have no dogs, and I'm clueless.

 

[bevann]

Not sure but I think it can be done.The chip is about the size of a grain of rice and is inserted under the skin so no trauma to the animal.On a dog it is usually done neat the shoulder blade area.Sounds like a great idea for horses and other critters.Our kennel club has a person from the vet office who will do it when we have our spring match show.

 

[anoki]

Yes it can be done on horses (any animal really). I'm not sure where they put it on horses. I do know one of the concerns with microchipping dogs is that sometimes the microchips migrate and don't stay in the area they were implanted.

~kathryn

 

[Miniv]

Not sure where a horse would be micro-chipped, probably in the neck somewhere? I do know it's done, but not regularly.

The two shelters I foster/volunteer for chip all their cats and dogs before they are adopted. The trick is that the new owners

need to update their info once they've completed the adoption.

 

[AnnaC]

Here in the UK it has been the law for all foals to be chipped for several years now. Chip is 'placed' in the neck on the left side a couple of inches down from the crest. You cannot register a foal without a microchip number. I do think this is a good idea but it does mean extra vet costs to be added to all those already involved with normal society registrations!

 

[AngC]

Yes it can be done on horses (any animal really). I'm not sure where they put it on horses. I do know one of the concerns with microchipping dogs is that sometimes the microchips migrate and don't stay in the area they were implanted.

oh great; this was sounding like a really good idea until I read your comment about "migrating." Then I made matters worse and Googled and read some stuff about cancer. ...geez, I'm really starting to hate the internet.

It is odd, that here in the US, there is not more emphasis on RFID chips for horses. My perception is that it is common for dogs. But I really have not heard of it mentioned regarding horses. That seems odd to me, because horses have the potential to be as expensive if not more expensive than dogs. Odd.

 

[FurstPlaceMiniatures]

Working in the agricultural industry, I frequently find the horse industry 'behind the times' AngC!

We can't even vaccinate for lepto yet? Come on, I can pick out a lepto vaccine for my cows and have many choices. I can genomically sequence my cows for under $50 and pick out duds from birth. In horses, out genetic choices are still so subjective (what wins, which is in turn which horse is the judges style, so an opinion). We have no genetic information on health, chance of issues, etc like I can easily get on any cow. Heck, FDA records are so good on cows that a 'hot' (antibiotic positive) carcass hanging in Pennsylvania can be traced through multiple auctions to another state to find the farm she came from within a day or two. A horse gets stolen? Posting on Facebook seems to be the most effective way to find it.

There is a need for a 'system' for horses like dogs and cattle. It routinely blows my mind there isn't one!

 

[anoki]

There are MANY dogs that are NOT microchipped in the USA (and Canada for that matter). The American Kennel Club does not require any form of identification on a dog that is registered with them…..which does not make sense to me at all.

It is also not necessary to have a veterinarian implant them, you can do them by yourself (I do my puppies). I order the microchips from the Canadian Kennel Club, individual implant ones.

I have heard that some studies were done about the possibility of them causing cancer. I'm not sure how much I trust any of the studies that have been done, or whether something with the chips has changed from when they started using them, but you have to weigh the risk/benefit factor.

There was also an issue with some scanners not being able to read some types of chips, but things seem to have gotten more universal now, and there isn't quite the issue that there once was.

~kathryn

 

[AngC]

Well, I've waffled down into total indecisiveness on this one. The really silly thing is that the night before I read this topic, I had a dream that our horses were stolen. I don't believe in premonition but sometimes there's things that make you go hmph.

I too am sometimes dubious about studies (i.e. cancer) (and besides who cares? for example, my old guy; I suspect he'd die of old age long before a chip gave him cancer.) Chips travelling does sound like something to worry about....or maybe not. I was thinking of chips that track packages and some other industrial applications and did not realize that they could be as small as a grain of rice. hmmm, thanks for your comments. I'll have to mull this one over.

 

[Bess Kelly]

Yes, chip in neck. Many years ago Hunt House Farms chipped every one in their herd. They were big show farm and breeders at the time and Bob Lee told me that he had concerns when he was away from farm and a caretaker called to say "the black mare is down sick". Since he had a whole lot of "black mares", which one it was for sure? -- and when breeding, etc., to be accurate. So he chipped them, used readers to be positive, etc. Other farms did some of the same at that time. Mid nineties. You can have the info put onto the registrations, at least AMHA used to allow.

Also, many goat registries require chips.