It was National Check the Chip day in the USA yesterday, and even though I'm UK based (and we have the whole month of June to raise awareness of having your pet microchipped) it made me think about microchipping, and what it actually is.
As with many (even most) people reading this, I have my dogs microchipped. Mine were both done by the rescues they came from; often it is done by the breeder's vet, or as routine when your pup is in for second vaccination.
Placing a microchip involves implanting a tiny (the size of a grain of rice) passive Radio Frequency Identification transponder under the animal's skin, usually between the shoulder blades. The chip is made up of several elements - on the outside there is a bioglass case, which is biologically inert (ie won't react with the body) and means the chip won't affect the animal in the future. Some types of chip have a polypropelene polymer "cap" over the glass casing, which stimulates the growth of collagen fibres around the implant and preventing migration, but not all do (How Stuff Works, Identipet). Even without this, the risk of the microchip moving is low (see AVMA Microchipping Background Information for summary of numbers of migrations)
Inside the glass case, there is a silicon data chip, which holds the microchip number, and an antenna and a capacitor. The microchip is "passive" (ie has no power source) and so in order to be read, the capacitor receives power from a scanner set to the correct frequency. The transponder uses the power to send the data held by the silicon chip, via the antenna, to the scanner - the whole process of reading the chip takes about 0.6 sec.
Having your dog microchipped is going to become a legal requirement of ownership as of April 2016 in England (March 2015 in Wales), with penalties for not complying. It makes sense to have your dog chipped anyway though, legal requirement or not, as it massively increases the chances of having your pet returned to you if it strays - a study carried out in the USA in 2009 showed that dogs without microchips were returned to their owners 21.9% of the time, whereas microchipped dogs were returned to their owners 52.2% of the time. Cats without microchips were reunited with their owners only 1.8% of the time, whereas microchipped cats went back home 38.5% of the time (AVMA Microchipping FAQ). The majority of chipped dogs that didn't get home were cases where the owners had forgotten to update their details at the chip registry - and this is the focus of "check the chip" day.
Data released by the Dogs Trust (and supported by SAVSNET) indicates that around 60% of dogs in the UK are currently microchipped, so there's still room for improvement in overall numbers. However, there isn't any data on how many chipped dogs here in the UK currently can't get back to their owners because the owner data is wrong - but it's distressing how commonly I see the local dog wardens posting "found" pictures and commenting that the dog has a chip but the phone number is incorrect. You don't want that to be your dog - so it's worth making sure your details are up to date. The best place to start in the UK is with Petlog: the umbrella chip registry run by the Kennel Club, and with Pet Microchip Lookup run by AAHA in the US
Isn't technology like this amazing? It's hard to believe that a little tiny chip can be read from elsewhere in 0.6 seconds. Unbelievable. Wow. Thanks for sharing this information with us. I'm in the U.S. and actually don't know if it will become a requirement here for us. I guess I'd better look into it. Thank you for sharing! I love your site!
ReplyDeleteThank you :o)
DeleteI'm likely to do a follow up on the "requirement" aspect of microchipping. It definitely has some good points in theory, but as with so many things, if it becomes another burden for responsible dog owners, while being ignored by irresponsible ones, does it really have practical value?