by Janet Farricelli CPDT-KA

Created on: April 01, 2009   Last Updated: October 13, 2009

Every time a stray pet is found, the first thing shelter personnel will do after checking for ID tags on the collar, is to scan the pet for a microchip. The beeping noise deriving from the hand-held scanner suggesting the presence of a microchip, will ultimately make the difference between a pet being reunited with its family or a pet being put up for adoption or even euthanized because nobody ever claimed it.

Microchips are implanted in a manner similar to a vaccination. The only difference is that the needle gauge may be a bit larger. A microchip is small as a grain of rice and it is usually implanted under the skin in the the pet's shoulder blade area. Most pets do not show any pain reaction as the injection is quick and takes a second. Once implanted, the microchip will be permanently in place for the rest of your pet's life.

Microchips may be implanted at any veterinarian office or at any shelter upon adopting your pet. Some people opt to have the microchip inserted while the pet is under general anesthesia when being spayed or neutered.

Each microchip is unique because they each have a number embedded within. This number is brought up once the pet is scanned with a special hand-held scanner as previously mentioned. When given to an operator this number will bring up the pet's name, the owner's name, address and phone number, successfully allowing the pet to be reunited with its family.

For those concerned about the costs of micro-chipping, most microchips may be inserted for under $50. Micro-chipping though is not sufficient, left on its own it is pretty useless, in order to work the microchip number must be registered, this may cost up to $20 dollars extra. The most popular micro-chipping companies are AVID and Home Again.

Any type of pet can be virtually micro-chipped. Dogs, cats, horses, mice, birds and even reptiles! The size of the microchip remains the same regardless of the pet's size. Microchips cannot cause any allergic reactions in pets since they are inert and biocompatible. The ones produced by Avid will also remain in place because they are coated with Parylene C which will cause the microchip to be surrounded by connective tissue making it immobile.

The benefits of micro-chipping pets are enormous. They truly make the difference between a pet being reunited to their family or a pet being surrendered to a shelter and possibly even euthanized. Each year AVID alone reunites more than 1,400 pets to their families and its current registry contains more than 14 million pets. Micro-chipping your pet is a wise choice and it will ultimately ensure that should your pet get lost, your story will have a very happy ending.

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