What's The Basic Feel Of Microchipping On This Fourm?

[Guest Giselle]

After Giselle ran away for half a day (unchipped) and I experienced that ineffable fear and uncertainty, I said "never again".

 

It's only $30. It's one more tool in my arsenal to keep my pups safe. It's the least I can do. All are chipped

[greytpups]

Both our pups are microchipped. We lost Ben's tags last year at Dewey and the mall staff (where the tags fell off) called 24PetWatch who contacted us about the tags which I thought was really nice. Unfortunately the mall staff would not mail them to us and Dewey is a 12 hour drive. It cost us $50/dog and no maintenance or annual fees. I think I had to pay $5 to get Ben's tag replaced.

 

[Guest Spiff]

Just a side note, if you are traveling to or planning to move to Europe you have to have a microchip that conforms to ISO Standard 11784. AVID apparently offers a Euro chip. (The normal US ones have 9 digit numbers, the EU uses a standard that uses 10 digit numbers. EU officers do not have scanners that read the 9 digit numbers, only the 10 digit numbers.)

 

See here for more information.

 

Spiff is required by law to have a microchip here in Germany because he is considered a "large dog". A chip is also required when travelling to other EU countries. Spiff also has a little passport that contains his vaccination information, plus his chip number so that officials can compare his passport with his chip. We have to carry it with us if he is going into other EU countries!

Edited June 11, 2008 by Spiff

[Guest Cris_M]

When Duncan was chipped, my vet said that the brand of chip is generally determined by what chip is used most often in your area. As was noted, HomeAgain and Avid use different scanners. Just saying that saving money on an Avid chip in an area that is HomeAgain country won't be a true savings. But, I surely am thankful to be living in Avid country.

 

Don't know about other places, but around here animal control people do know about chips migrating and do scan the sides and chest of the dog. And, they would have zero clue about greyhounds as a breed, tats, or NGA.

 

If Duncan escaped, got injured, and was taken to a vet other than his own, they could call me and make sure I was good for the bill. That alone is worth it for me.

[LaFlaca]

I just had Wendy chipped last Friday. Cost me $45 + a one time fee of $18.50 to AVID. Well worth it if it will help find my girl should she go missing (God forbid!).

[Guest MAXNAV]

If I find a wandering waif the first place I take it is the vet on the corner to check for a chip. They told me in all their years of chip reading hundreds of dogs they have reunited exactly two with the owners. By and large most people don't bother to register the chip (the paperwork from Home Again on my last foster requested $19.99 a year) or they move and forget to update the microchip.

 

Believe it or not, my friend whom I worked with in rescue, was able to track down an owner for a dog. Even though the chip was not registered to an owner, the company (I think Avid) was able to tell them based on the chip number, what vet/rescue had chipped that dog. I guess the chip company keeps track of who they ship what batch of chips to. Everyone was discouraged thinking that this poor pup wouldn't be reunited with it's owner. But.... low and behold, the owner was tracked down, thanks to the chip company, and one smart rescuer. So, they do work if someone takes the time to research it. I think it only took her a few phone calls (2 hrs?) to reunite owner/dog. (Of course, she also gave them a good talking to about having a collar with I.D. tags on their dog too!)

[Aerosmom]

I had Roo, an oops puppy who was never tattooed, microchipped. I haven't yet with Aero and Doc, but might in the future.

[Guest Lorraineandcrew]

Just had both of my hounds chipped last month. I asked a lot of people about it first as well, some people agree, some don't, it's really up to you. There was some concern about the possibility of the chip causing cancer somewhere down the road, but no real data. I think you have to weigh up the possibility of that happening against getting your pups back safe and sound - to me, the latter far outweighs the former. We are in Toronto, Canada, and I had it done by a vet. It was a one time fee, no yearly upkeep. I went online and made sure they registered everthing correctly, and that was it. I think for most people, you would not forget that your hounds are chipped, and if you move, you would remember to update the info. I also believe that "most" people who find a dog wandering would take it to get it scanned, although some people might hesitate approaching these tall dogs (if only they knew how people friendly most greys are!) and not everyone would be willing to put them in their vehicle. I found a toy Manchester Terrier last month running back and forth in a parking lot and getting really stressed, so I took her to my vet and we found the owners, and I delivered her back to her mom. Good thing too, she was an older girl (11) and probably wouldn't have survived in a shelter environment too long, and few people would adopt a dog of that age.

 

Anyway - end result - up to each individual, but I think you'll find most are for it.

[Jester]

The biggest problem is that the two major chip companies - Avid and Home Again - do not have compatible scanners/frequencies. If you have one kind of chip, the other kind of scanner can't read it or even register that it exits. There was a big controversy here a couple years ago when the local humane society started chipping with Avid and none of the local vets (or the county shelters) had scanners for them.

Three of my dogs are registered with Avid chips and one has a Home Again chip. I know for a fact that the Home Again scanner reads the Avid chips.

[BootsyCollins]

Just like everything else, chips aren't perfect, but they're something. We had our dog & cat chipped last year when we thought we were moving to England, where it was a requirement. We had to use either Home Again or Avid, our vet uses Home Again so that's what they have. At the time, there was not an annual fee - it was a one-time registration fee of $20 or so.

 

I saw an Animal Cops once where they found a cat that was chipped, and it turned out it had been lost over a year ago when it was a kitten. The owners lived several states away, but were so happy when the cat was found. It was a great story!

[Jester]

Our group uses Home Again and our coordinator has the following to say:

"The fee to put the chip in the database initially is a one-time fee. This includes tracking of the chip number and who it is registered to forever. Their pet recovery services cost $15 annually. This includes contacting shelters and vets offices on your behalf if your dog gets lost."

 

I told her what was in this post and she will call her rep back this afternoon...

[Guest sophieandcooper]

both sophie and cooper are chipped. Heaven forbid they ever get loose, I want every opportunity to get them back. Plus, their heads are so skinny, they could easily slip their collars and I am not going to rely on the fact that everyone knows that they have ear tatoos. When we first started looking into microchipping, our vet offered it, but it was pretty pricey. We called our local shelter and they offered it for a $25 donation which saved us $50 per dog.

[Guest Heep]

The Home Again annual membership is a scam, imo. They didn't have that on the form when I got Eden chipped, but they did when Yvain was. On the paper form, you have no choice, but if you register online, you do.

 

When I saw the addl charge on my credit card,I called & was like, "why did you charge me $14.99?". The Rep told me it was for a whole bunch of extra services (which I didn't want), but they will always have my dog's chip & info on file & I would not have to renew the membership for that.

[Hubcitypam]

The biggest problem is that the two major chip companies - Avid and Home Again - do not have compatible scanners/frequencies. If you have one kind of chip, the other kind of scanner can't read it or even register that it exits. There was a big controversy here a couple years ago when the local humane society started chipping with Avid and none of the local vets (or the county shelters) had scanners for them.

Three of my dogs are registered with Avid chips and one has a Home Again chip. I know for a fact that the Home Again scanner reads the Avid chips.

See post #25

[Hubcitypam]

Our group uses Home Again and our coordinator has the following to say:

"The fee to put the chip in the database initially is a one-time fee. This includes tracking of the chip number and who it is registered to forever. Their pet recovery services cost $15 annually. This includes contacting shelters and vets offices on your behalf if your dog gets lost."

 

I told her what was in this post and she will call her rep back this afternoon...

Look at the form in #15. There is a box to check to "register" with no fee mentioned. Then there is a box for the $10 "activation" fee and the $14.99 a year. There is no box merely for the $10 activation fee. Clear as mud? If there is no registration fee is that included in the $20 my boss charges? What is the difference between registration and activation?

[Guest LokisMom]

The Home Again annual membership is a scam, imo. They didn't have that on the form when I got Eden chipped, but they did when Yvain was. On the paper form, you have no choice, but if you register online, you do.

 

When I saw the addl charge on my credit card,I called & was like, "why did you charge me $14.99?". The Rep told me it was for a whole bunch of extra services (which I didn't want), but they will always have my dog's chip & info on file & I would not have to renew the membership for that.

 

In my understanding, if you go online, the $14.99 is an upgrade. We used Home Again and they always try to get us to do the upgrade to get a bunch of other services we aren't interested in. I assume they expect people to just check the box and not do their homework thus they get more money?

 

Either way, ours are chipped with the exception of Cole. We haven't chipped him because he is way skinny and his health is weird right now so I want to wait until we get him sorted out then we will chip him.

 

I recommend it because as someone else said, it is one more tool in the arsenal. It also just might work. I will pay $50 to increase the chance my babies get back to me. Tags come off and many don't know about ear tattoos. Shelters and vet clinics check for chips. And they do know about the migration and scan all along the backs and sides usually. I have worked at a vet clinic and had my bounces scanned to make sure we weren't re-chipping.

 

And anecdotal evidence... when I worked at the clinic, a client's dog got loose. The client called us in case someone brought him, while on the phone with the client, Home Again called our clinic because the client could not be reached. His number was busy as he was talking to us. Someone had found the dog, took it to their vet, they scanned the chip, called the client, the back up number, and finally our clinic in an effort to reach him. All in all, his dog was missing for 2 hours or so. It may not work, but sometimes it does. The dog had gotten out via slipping his collar, by the way, so the tags were still in the owners hand with the collar.

[Guest simile]

Our rescue group uses AVID and we've been very happy with them. Really good support and easy for new owners to register and maintain their info. Our local shelter is able to scan for HomeAgain and AVID (and probably the European chips, too), as are most the vets in town. All of our scanners (in the rescue) are muti-chip scanners, too.

 

One thing to be aware of, besides migrating chips, are that chips can flat leave the body during medical procedures. We've had two dogs in rescue just in the last year that had to be rechipped - one after surgery, and one after administering a series of subcutaneous fluids. The chips just floated away. We never would've thought of it, except double checking all the microchips against their chip paperwork is one of the things we do before adopting a dog out.

[Guest FordRacingRon]

I wasn't going to do it but my group, Greysave, had a special deal. I saw a couple of others do it and the needle was huge so I decided Leia didn't need it, afterall she has 3 tags on. Then someone told me in LA County it was a law that your dog had to be mirochipped to get the dog license renewed so I did it. NO problem. Then last week I got her license renewal and guess what,,they didn't care that she was or was not chipped. They just wanted a copy of the latest rabies vaccination. But I feel better about it anyhow. Tags can come off.

[Guest loveagrey]

Neither of my dogs are chipped, but both have ample information on their collars, including name, address and phone number. Trap's ears are still completely legible, and he also wears an ID tag from our adoption group.

[greypuppyluv]

Neither of my dogs are chipped, but both have ample information on their collars, including name, address and phone number. Trap's ears are still completely legible, and he also wears an ID tag from our adoption group.

Having tags on your dog's collar is the ideal way to go, but unless you have checked with your local shelter(s), please don't assume they will know what to do with your dog's tattoos should the collar come off (or if they even see/find the tattoos). Generall, the only way your dog's tattoos will be an asset is if your dog is found and the collar came off.....the tattoos would be a means of identifying that the dog belongs to you.

 

I can assure you that unless your local shelter is small and has greyhound savvy people working there, your dog's tattoos mean nothing to them.

[Guest becca97]

Most animal rescues and retired greyhound rehomers etc microchip before adoption over here, so Rhia is microchipped, and so are our other none greys, just in case.

 

they also all have tags with my last name and phone number on one side and our address on the other.

 

beccaxx

Edited June 11, 2008 by becca97

[RobinM]

Mine are.

[Guest greytelectric]

With Greyhound Pets of America Northwest, they all have a tag with a number identifying them with their owner. Along with a GPA-NW phone number. I also have their tags with my information always on their collar. And they ALWAYS have their collars on. I don't feel the need to microchip. Not that it's a bad idea. I just don't feel the need.

[Guest PiagetsMom]

Yes, Piaget is microchipped through Home Again (there was no annual fee requested when I filled out her paperwork a couple of years ago, and I've never paid one) - they repaired her hock, spayed her, did her dental and chipped her all at the same time.

 

Obviously, not all vets implant in the same area......Lucy was microchipped in her chest and Piaget has hers between her shoulders, which is where her trainer said most greys' are put. I've asked her vet to scan her to make sure it was working and hasn't moved, and I'll probably do that again periodically.

 

I know that her tatoos are still readable and she's never without her tag collar and I have tags on her Martingale as well, but I always feel that her microchip is just another safeguard in the event that she were to be lost.

Edited June 12, 2008 by PiagetsMom

[Guest Grapehound]

Raisin is microchipped. Of course, she came from the rescue group microchipped. But I would have done it anyway, since I've had experience with two dogs getting lost without collars (non-greys, one was bad timing with an open gate while the collar was being washed, and the other the dog just twisted out of collar and ran). Both dogs were found in short order, but backup is always good in my opinion.

 

I've always been curious where the microchip goes in, since I've never seen it done. I can actually feel Raisin's, it's just below her shoulder muscle on her left side. It seems like it sits right under the skin because you can feel the whole shape and it moves around a little bit.