Every year, we at All Creatures Veterinary Clinic hear stories of pets that manage to escape from home by knocking out a window screen or slipping through a door. Others are victims of thieves. Microchipping from your All Creatures veterinarian makes life safer for animals and reduces stress for their owners. As the pet owner, you need to be sure to register your microchip at their website. Your personal contact information needs to be current if your pet ever gets lost.
How Does a Microchip Work?
In terms of size, a microchip resembles one grain of rice. Our doctor can implant microchips during appointments scheduled for this procedure, routine pet exams, or while the staff is performing other types of procedures.
Inserting a microchip causes no more discomfort than administering a vaccine. To implant one, our veterinarian injects the chip under the pet’s skin using a hypodermic needle, usually between the shoulder blades.
When the staff at All Creatures passes a scanner over a microchip, the scanner sends out radio waves that activate the chip. This causes the microchip to broadcast its assigned identification number, which is also stored in the registry of the manufacturer. Once this number displays, we provide it to the chip manufacturer. The manufacturer then contacts the owner and launches the process to get the pet back home.
Veterinary professionals associate very few problems with microchips.A British database that tracks pet microchipping has recorded only 391 adverse reactions in more than 4 million pets since 1996. The most common is movement of the chip from the original site. Rarer problems include chip failure, hair loss, swelling, infection, and tumors.
Benefits of Microchipping in Omaha
Microchipping in Omaha has vastly improved the odds of recovering a lost or stolen pet. A study of 7,700 strays at shelters revealed that dogs without chips returned home less than 22 percent of the time. The figure surpassed 52 percent for those with chips. Among cats without chips, animals returned to their owners just 1.8 percent of the time. The total rose to 38.5 percent for those with microchips.
There is no need to be concerned with microchip privacy issues. Each pet owner decides on which contact information goes into the chip registry and is responsible for any updates. For an adopted pet already microchipped, all a new owner needs to do is connect with the registry to update contact information.
Owners appreciate the fact that chips represent low-maintenance technology. Most last through a pet’s lifetime. Microchipping in Omaha only requires an owner to do three things:
- Register the chip after implantation
- Have our clinic staff check the chip by scanning it during yearly pet exams
- Make sure registry contact information remains current
Schedule an Appointment with Our Omaha Veterinarian
All Creatures Veterinary Clinic practice provides full-service medical care to meet the lifetime needs of your pet. Call us today at (402) 399-8224 to schedule an appointment with one of our All Creatures veterinarians.
Our goal at All Creatures Veterinary Clinic is the finest in veterinary care for all the animals we serve.