I am thinking about doing it for my dog. I figure for about $40 it’s worth peace of mind.
Has anyone done this? Where in your pet did they put it? Has it ever come into play for you?
My dog is chipped. IIRC, it’s in his shoulder. I figured the same as you - for $30-$40, it was worth it.
You do have to remember to call the 800 number and change your address and phone number when you move; other than that, there’s nothing to it. My dog has never been lost or stolen, so I’ve never tested it. I’m pretty sure most vets will check it if you want 'em to, though. I get mine checked when he goes in for his yearly shots.
Well, we didn’t have it done but our pets came already microchipped. They were both shelter / dog rescue babies.
I don’t know how much it costs to have the implant procedure done, but I know it would cost us about $15 a month for the monitoring service. Meaning, if we actually wanted to register the id# with our name, address, etc. we’d have to shill out $15 a month each. Not a bad deal, but being semi-poor college students we really can’t handle any more financial strain.
The implants are (or so we’re told) in the scruff of the neck, between the shoulder blades. I’ve never been able to tell that they’re there. They’re only about the size of a grain of sand.
I’ve kept the paperwork, and we’ll probably sign up for the monitoring service one of these days, but the only way it works is if someone finds your dog and takes them to a location with a scanner. If you’re subscribed, they can pull up your info. If not, I guess nothing comes up and they get to assume the dog is a stray.
YMMV, and they may not charge a ‘subscription’ fee, but that’s the way it works at least here in Tallahassee with shelter & rescue puppies.
Yep – both my cats are microchipped.
The chip is biologically inert, the size of a grain of rice. It goes between the pet’s shoulderblades. The chips come packaged in the tips of special syringes; getting the chip is like getting a shot for the animal. And it lasts far longer than the animal will live.
My cats are indoor cats, so it’s never come into play. Still, if they ever escape, I know that our shelter scans all animals several times before considering them for adoptions or euthanasia, and I feel confident that if my cats ever got loose and ended up at the shelter, they’d come home to me.
Go for it, I say!
Daniel
PS You’re in Atlanta? I know the guy who’s doing Fulton County Animal Services now – he used to be my boss here in Asheville. He’s a big proponent of microchips, and I expect he’ll set it up so y’all’s animal control scans at least three times per animal as well.
All my cats are chipped. They insert it under the skin between their shoulder blades. On one of my cats I can feel a little bump where it is.
The only time a chip has “come into play” was when we adopted an abandoned cat who had a chip. I contacted the agency that records that info and had to fill out a change of ownership certificate. They contacted the absent owner and gave them 30 days to respond. The deadbeat previous owner never responded so a certificate was issued in my name. We tried to get the cat’s previous vet to release his records based on the number on his chip but they didn’t record information based on the number.
Having the chip gives me a little peace of mind should any of my (3) cats get lost.
Jetgirl, I think you’re wrong about the subscription service. I know how Avid Microchips work:
Each batch of chips is sold to a different shelter, vet, etc. If an animal with a chip is found, the vet, shelter, etc. who found the chip calls Avid up and tells them what the chip’s unique ID number is (every chip has one; that’s what comes up on the scanner).
If Avid has a subscriber for that unique number, they’ll give that to the caller. Otherwise, they’ll give the caller the phone number of the business that bought that microchip.
Then the shelter etc. who has the dog can call the vet who installed the chip and ask, “Who owns the dog that you put chip #106797 into?” (or whatever). The vet who installed the chip will check their records, find your name and number, and give it to the shelter.
And then the shelter calls you.
At least with Avid, the monitoring service is pretty unnecessary. As long as you make sure the vet who installed the chip has your updated contact information, you should be fine.
Check with your vet to make sure I’m telling this right, though – and it may be different for other companies. Still, though, I’m pretty sure they’d work it something like this with other companies as well.
Daniel
Yes, my dog was a rescue and she’s chipped. It’s located over her right shoulder blade. We are not charged a monitoring fee.
There is one in one of my dogs; it’s under the scruff of the neck I think. My older one has to make do with a tattoo. 
Never had to use either one though.
I can relate an anecdote about them though. A few months ago a stray wandered into our yard. (We took it in as our neighbor was about to start shooting it with a pellet rifle.) It had no collar but we could tell that it had been an inside dog by looking at its paws and fur.
We put up signs but no one showed up. Eventually I took it up to the emergency clinic (this was on a Sunday) to see if it was chipped.
It was, but there was a problem. The way it seems to work is that the chip reports a code that the vet enters into database which returns the contact information. In this case, the primary, alternate and work phone numbers associated with the chip were all invalid. Yeah, the dog was chipped but it did absolutely no good.
The owner did eventually get in contact with us and apparently hadn’t realized the dog had escaped. She also told us that the numbers were years out of date.
So, in this case, the chip would have helped us find the dogs owner if they had kept the records up to date. So, don’t assume that simply chipping the dog is all you need to do.
I hope you’re referring to whoever is working with Southern Hope and is not Ron Totten who was in charge (more or less) of FCAC over the past few years. I work with some dog rescue groups and its a pretty big brewhaha about who will ultimately wind up in control. Southern Hope won an interim contract, I’m pretty sure the final vote is on June 18th.
FCAC used to never do any scanning at all. And they had nearly double the euthanization rate of some of the surrounding counties. If you’re friend is with Southern Hope, buy him a drink for me. They’ve done a great job and I hope they ultimately take control.
If Ron Totten is your friend, I’ll bite my tongue since this ain’t the pit.
Wow! Seven way near-simulpost! There were no responses to this thread when I started typing!
Oh yeah, I’m in the Atlanta area too; the vet in question was the Cobb Emergency Clinic on Hwy 41 in Marietta if that means anything.
Both of my dogs are microchipped. They don’t wear collars when they are home alone because of the choking horror stories I have heard, so I figured microchipping was a safe alternative in case they escaped. Also, because they are purebreds I also worried about theft. I know that my vet scans every new dog that comes into his practice just to make sure it wasn’t stolen (he even did that to my older dog).
I paid $12.00 each to start up the service (plus $45.00 to have them inserted), and beyond that there is no fee. It’s one less thing to worry about, as I see it.
My bichon Spunky is chipped. Of course, he’s tiny and we live in NYC, so I figure that if he gets out of my building on his own, he’s probably toast, and if he’s stolen, I’m not sure how much good it would do. But we had it done anyway, and I suppose if it should ever become an issue, I’ll be glad that we did.
Just a reminder from my vet:
Chipping only works if you live in an area where animal control or others have chip readers. If no one can or will scan the chip, it’s worthless.
You may want to check this out before the (minimal) expense.
Whistlepig
My cat is chipped. It doesn’t seem to bother her half as much as wearing a collar. It’s one of those “just in case” things. The local shelter has a policy of chip scanning every animal that comes in.
our first dog to be chipped died from a snake bite. The second one got run over by a pick up truck. So there are some things that chipping can’t fix. 
Here’s hoping that #3 has better luck (she has already received extensive snake and vehicle avoidance trainings).
My aunt and uncle had 2 dogs (bichon’s) that were chipped, but one developed a reaction to it (a huge lump around the chip several years after being implanted) so they had the chips taken out of both dogs. Granted, both of these dogs are of high pedigree and have had extensive allergey and other health problems. YMMV
My dog has been chipped for about 5 years now. IIRC it cost about $30.00 to implant and no monitoring fees. The chip is located between her shoulder blades. Implantion didn’t bother her in the least, not the slightest yelp, yip or flinch, and it hasn’t troubled her at all since either.
She’s never outside without a tether or leash but I wanted a failsafe anyway. I wanted a way for her to make it back home even in the remote offchance she got lost. It’s a peace of mind thing for very little cost.
Veb
My 4 dogs and 12 cats have been microchipped…as were another 5 cats who passed away over the last 8 months. None of them had any reaction to it. The microchips were all inserted somewhere around the scruff of their neck.
I know a vet tech who has one implanted in her arm. She was curious about how painless it really was; thankfully, an animal’s sensitivity at the scruff of the neck is minimal, because she said the dull needle actually hurt like a sonofagun.
Both of our dogs have them, but we still need to register with the service.
One teeny "horror story" about the chip: I work at a local shelter, a shelter which goes to other shelters in the bay area and as far inland as Sacramento to assess the dogs and bring back the most adoptable to our "no-kill" shelter ("no-kill" because we will put a dog down if it has become unadoptable, i.e. a danger to the public or terminally ill, a very rare thing for us to have to do) and about a month or so ago, the dogs were all picked out and tested and ready to be loaded into the van and...
“Oh, wait, maybe we should scan them first.”
So, they scan them and three of the dogs have chips.
These dogs had been in the shelter for at least a week, for the “stray hold” to have expired and make them available for adoption, and no one had scanned them on their intake.
This made me pretty mad; if my babies had to spend a minute more than neccessary in a shelter (exposed to kennel cough, overcrowding, crappy cornbased dog food, stress and overcrowding) there would be some asses kicked.
My ultimate hysterical nightmare is that someone steals our dogs, drives far away and loses them, or sells them to someone who abandons them… The chip would be the best, quickest way to get them back home safe, if only people would remember to scan for them.
Yup, never had to use thank goodness. It’s well worth it, and the dog never knows the difference. She wasn’t even sore the day they inserted it.