Well, I'm playing berner-l catch up again, instead of going to bed.
I'm sure I'll for it tomorrow, but in the meantime...
Someone asked about microchips. I did a bit of research on
them a couple years back before deciding which one to carry in my
practice.
There are 2 major makers of microchips here in the US. AVID
and Shering-Plough (not sure if I spelled that right - at 1 am I refuse
to be responsible for grammatical and spelling errors <G>). The
Home Again chip is actually Shering-Plough's, though I believe
someone else actually makes it. Both companies make scanners
that read the presence of a chip. However, only Avid's scanner (not
the HomeAgain scanner as was previously stated) will actually
read both chips. And not all of Avid's scanners will do it - their
cheapest scanner only notes the presence of other chips. BUT,
the scanner that Avid gives to shelters to use is the top of the line
scanner. Avid also makes 2 different chips now. Their regular chip
cannot be read by the Home Again scanner, though its presence
will be reported. Avid's so called "Euro-chip" can be read by the
HomeAgain scanner. I believe the Euro-chip can also be read
overseas - hence the Eurochip title, but am not positive on that.
Not all shelters have scanners, and not all shelters that have
scanners use them. Is that a good reason not to get a microchip?
Well, if you have one and they don't scan, they won't be able to get
the chip's information and get your pet back to you. BUT, I can
guarantee that if you don't have a chip, then they can't get the info
no matter whether they scan or not. Kind of like all the health
certification talk - you won't find what you're not bothering to look
for, except in this case it's they won't find what your pet doesn't
have no matter how hard they look for it.
I put my money where my mouth is. All my pets are
microchipped and have been for years, except for my bird. She will
be microchipped as soon as I take her in for bloodwork, since we'll
anesthetize her for that (I value my fingers too much to try drawing
blood on her awake <G>).
Anyway, an advantage of AVID over HomeAgain, and why I
chose Avid instead, is that the AVID chips are registered to the vet
or breeder who bought them. So even if my clients never bothered
to register with one of the registries (there are 2 main ones), if their
pet is picked up and scanned, the shelter will be informed that the
pet was chipped by Dr. Zebley, and they can call me and I can go
through my files to see who got that particular chip. Rather
convuluted compared to just being told who the owner was, but
better than being told "Sorry we don't have any information on
whose chip that is".
The 2 registries are PetTrac, by AVID, and CAR (Companion
Animal Recovery), which is run by AKC and endorsed by
HomeAgain. Since half my pets are AVID chipped, and the other
half are HomeAgain, I registered all of them in both registries. So
I'm a bit obsessive, at least I know they've got the best chance of
being returned to me.
And I would say that the shelter I work at returns at least 1 pet
a month due to the presence of a microchip. And that is probably
a low estimate, since I'm only there 5 hours a day, 3 days a week,
and spend most of that time "hiding" in my medical room. (FYI, the
shelter is open 7 days a week.) Personally, if only 1 pet is
returned home because we were scanning, then it's worth the
effort. Especially if that one pet is mine!!! <G>
Melissa
Melissa, Tyra and Orry Granite Falls, NC
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Homepage: http://home.talkcity.com/RedRoseRd/melissaz/index.html
BEHAF Homepage: http://www.behaf.com
