Should I Microchip my pet?
Last week we had 2 stray dogs brought into at VetShack that were found wandering in local woods on different days. When the first dog was brought to us we scanned his microchip, put the details into the database and within minutes were calling his owners to say that we had their pet safe at the practice. They were overjoyed after searching frantically for him for 5 hours and they were reunited within half an hour of us calling them. The second dog brought to us wasn’t microchipped, which meant we couldn’t locate his owner and after no luck on social media he was collected by the dog warden and kept safe in kennels until his owner noticed the shared social media posts 48 hours later.
Pets do go missing despite our best efforts and our experiences at VetShack last week show just how important microchipping is to help you quickly reunite with your pet.
Apart from the benefits of helping you to find lost pets quickly it has also been a legal requirement to microchip your dog since 2016 and from 10th June this year it is also a legal requirement to microchip all cats before they are 20 weeks of age. You could be fined up to £500 for owning a dog or cat that isn’t microchipped.
At VetShack it costs £35 to have your pet microchipped and if your pet is a VetShack VIP member on one of our Pet Health Plans then there is no cost to have them microchipped. We can also microchip ferrets and tortoises which are both very good escape artists and microchipping them will ensure they have a much better chance of being returned to you if they do go missing.
Microchipping your pet simply involves a visit to the practice and a quick injection, the microchip itself is about the size of a grain of rice and easy to inject.
So YES you should definitely microchip your pets!
