Keeping Our Pets Happy And Healthy: Microchipping And the Importance Of Vaccines

Air Date:
Heard On The Larry Meiller Show

August 15th is “Check the Chip” Day. Larry Meiller finds out why it’s a good idea to microchip your pets, and to keep the registration up to date and accurate. Plus, information on why vaccines are important, and what to do in the case of a reaction.

Featured in this Show

  • Microchips Increasingly Used To Help Get Lost Pets Home Safely

    Microchips have become a small but powerful tool for pet owners. It’s now become common for veterinarians to implant the chips inside the body of a cat or dog in order to boost that animal’s chances of getting home safely and quickly if lost.

    The idea is that when the runaway pet gets taken to an animal shelter or clinic, staff there can scan the chip and then run that data through online databases to find owner information.

    To encourage pet owners to take the precaution, the American Veterinary Medical Association has designated Aug. 15 as “Check the Chip Day.”

    The process of microchipping involves injecting a chip into a pet’s body, generally between the shoulder blades. Dr. Sandi Sawchuk, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, described the microchip used in the procedure as “a little tiny thing, about the size of a grain of rice.”

    The chips, which are an inert presence inside the animal, are encrypted with an individualized code. Sawchuk likened them to a barcode on a grocery item.

    Once a veterinarian inserts the chip, pet owners then need to register the chip with an online database. Sawchuk emphasized that the chip is only as useful as the information on it, so it is crucial to keep the information updated with the registry: “One of the issues that I see as a veterinarian is that people move and they (don’t) update the information in the database,” she said.

    To check whether a chip is actively registered, Sawchuk said that the American Animal Hospital Association has an online look-up available.

    “You put in the microchip number of your pet,” she said. “Then you can find out who the company is, and get an 800 number to call to make sure that they have all the information you need to be able to get your pet back safely.”

    The AAHA site is also helpful, Sawchuk said, because a chip is registered with the company that made it and maintains its own registry. While there is no a central database for chip information, the AAHA site serves a similar gateway function.

    It’s also important to ensure that a microchip is functioning properly. Sawchuk said that she routinely scans animals’ chips when they come in for a routine appointment to make sure that they are readable. It’s uncommon, she said, but chips will occasionally malfunction. Luckily, most companies are happy to replace it at no additional cost.

    Besides helping locate a missing pet, there are other uses for the microchips. Sawchuk said that there are now doggie doors that are designed to only let the intended pet through it by reading the microchip data.

    “That can keep raccoons and stray animals out of your house,” she said.

Episode Credits

  • Larry Meiller Host
  • Judith Siers-Poisson Producer
  • Dr Sandra Sawchuk Guest

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