27/10/2023
I’ve made a habit of scanning microchips when pets are in for annual exams. In the last few months alone I’ve had cases where
1️⃣ Chip present but is unregistered. In these cases the animal was probably chipped as a puppy/kitten and no one followed through with the registration or the paperwork was lost.
2️⃣ Chip is still registered to the breeder. Breeder gives the new owner the necessary paperwork and they don’t follow through.
3️⃣ The chip is registered to someone other than the owner presenting the animal. Most recently a couple bought in a cat who had shown up in their back yard 4 years ago! I was put in an awkward position because I had to call the original owner. In Western Australia, the law states that the owner of a dog/cat is the person who is recorded in the local government register - if the animal is unregistered, the owner is the person who is recorded on the microchip database. Luckily because so much time had passed, the old owner was happy to hear the cat was alive, and handed over ownership to the new owners … but wouldn’t it have been nice if the new owners had bought the cat in 4 years ago ?!?
4️⃣ Puppies/kittens in a litter get mixed up, especially if they look the same, and owners are given the wrong paperwork and register the wrong animal in that litter to themselves.
5️⃣ Chip details are out of date (phone number, address). We’ve had to resort to Facebook stalking on occasion to track owners down, when lost animals present at the clinic.
6️⃣ In 2009-2012, in Australia and New Zealand, there was a faulty batch of 15,000 Biotech Virbac chips which are no longer scanning. They all start with 900088000. Virbac is covering the cost of replacement.
6️⃣ The chip is missing - when a puppy/kitten is chipped, in some cases it falls out in the first 12-24 hours before the skin has healed. CONTINUED IN COMMENTS.
