An article in the Daily Record says microchips have helped a lot of pets reunite with their owners. The article says the procedure is easier for cats than dogs - dogs may neeed to be sedated.
Microchips are responsible for thousands of happy reunions between owners and pets every year. With the large amount of lost pets taken to shelters, microchips could also keep your pet from being euthanized or sold to a new owner.
"Microchips are only about the size of a grain of rice," said Patty Hug, a veterinary technician at the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at Texas A & M University. "They are made to last the entire life of the pet, so once it's inserted, no upkeep or replacements are necessary."
Microchips are injected through a fairly large needle. Cats tend to cope with the injection easily, but dogs often need sedation during the procedure, says Hug. She says the best time to install the microchip is while the pet is being spayed or neutered. The pet is already under anesthesia, so it won't feel any pain.
The article says other pets besides cats and dogs also get chipped including birds, large fish and farm animals. Veterinarians and animal shelters have microchip scanners they can use to read the code on a pet's microchip. The chip's manufacturer is then called to obtain the pet owner's information. Note: the article points out that microchips are not a replacement for a collar.
Suite 101 has a helpful article about pet microchips here. The article says there are two costs involved - one to have the chip implanted (about $30 to $40 according to the article) and another $15 to $20 fee to register your pet with the the microchip company. The article also states that the two largest pet microchip companies are AVID and HomeAgain.
It all sounds very easy and uncomplicated right? Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Competition among the microchip companies has created big problems. The biggest problem with pets and microchips is that there is not a universal scanner. This means that a vet or an animal shelter could scan your pet with a scanner that doesn't recognize your pet's brand of microchip. For more about this problem read here and here.
A more recent series on Dolittler - Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 (hat tip Pet Connection) takes a longer look at the pet microchip wars.
Update: There are reports of a studies linking microchips to cancer in lab mice and rats.
