May 07, 2018
Alright, pals, the next awareness holiday for the month of May is… drumroll please…
Chip your Pet Month!
A friendly reminder to (hello!) microchip your pet as a form of next-level identification. Don’t get us wrong, tags are a wonderful, immediate, and responsible way to identify your pal should they ever get lost, but their permanent ticket home is a microchip. In fact, dogs are 2.5 times more likely to be reunited with their families if microchipped and cats are up to 21 times more likely. Collars and tags can fall off, but a microchip goes wherever your pet goes and will last their entire lifetime.
As tiny as a grain of rice, a microchip is painlessly inserted just underneath the skin between your dog or cat’s shoulders; it’s so easy most pets don’t even react while it’s happening. That microchip has a number that exists in an international database, which comes up when scanned by a vet or shelter. There are a variety of companies you can enroll your pet’s chip with but, thanks to the American Animal Hospital Association, the database is easily searchable by chip number; as long as you keep your information up to date, the vet or shelter can find you and reunite you with your pal. Be advised, though, that certain chips have certain frequencies (125, 128, and 134.2 kHz) and some shelters’ scanners may not pick up that frequency, causing them to believe the pet doesn’t have a chip at all. If you ever need to have a pet scanned, ask the vet or employee if their scanner picks up all three frequencies.
Even indoor pets can get outside and wander off, so talk with your vet about this painless and nearly foolproof way of making sure your pal always comes home. If you’ve ever reunited, or been reunited with, a pet because of a microchip, share your story on Facebook!
