Microchips
When I adopted Charlie from the Northern California OES rescue about 4 years ago he had a chip implanted that I registered. It was an AKC registration database and costs nothing except for the initial chip. When I got Toby a year ago from the local County shelter, he was also implanted with a chip. This time the registration went to a commercial company called HomeAgain. To my surprise, I just got a bill by email from them to pay an "annual fee" of $15. It sounds like if I don't pay it, I get purged from their system. I called the local shelter where I got Toby and was told they now use a different commercial chip company but not to worry because I was in their County system. That's fine if Toby gets picked up by a local animal control officer, but what about other places? Does anyone know how the databases work for these apparently competing companies? Is microchipping really all that is is cracked up to be? |
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| well my dogs are chipped. My three year olds are through Home again when they did a lifetime registration. My pup is through AKC and I think there is an annual fee now.
I believe to complicate matters, some scanners only read some chips so you should use the type of chip that is prevalent in your area because that is the scanner the shelter and the vets will most likely have. Is it worth it - well if your dog is lost or stolen all vets are supposed to scan new patients and verify the chip so I assume lost/stolen pets can be found that way. humane societies can also help find a dog that way. I also suspect some of it is false peace of mind - but I guess that is worth something as well  |
| I don't know about the annual fees with the different companies.
I do have some info about the scanners - I do know that most places (vets, shelters, etc.) have a kind of universal scanner that will pick up the different kinds. My vet has one, and it comes up as "Avid - *** *** ***" when they are scanned. I assume the diffrent brands pop up on the screen in a similar way. (Mine are all AVID). Chewie also got verified by the vet that did his xrays to submit for OFA. It was a universal scanner that came up the same way (as above). |
| good point dawn, I had forgotten you now need to have permanent ID in/on a dog for OFA etc. |
| I like the microchips. I don't know about the States but their good in Canada. A lot of dogs won't let you look for he tattoo but it's easy to scan for a chip and there are universal scanners. I still think they should have tattoo's for worst case scerios but microchips are less stressful on the dog and human if they should ever get lost.
That is COMPLETELY personal preference though and their not without their negatives. If the vet doesn't implant it right they can fall out (and a lot of vets are pretty bad at it). but the right vet and chip and your set. But that's just me. |
| I think it's worth the investment. Here's a story from the Philly news last night about a Dachshund that disappeared from a backyard, over 5 years ag,o and was found 300 miles away in Pittsburgh, thanks to the microchip:
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?secti ... id=6521737 |
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