Microchip Migration

Should your puppy and you get separated, the idea of permanent identification implanted just under his skin around the shoulder blades is reassuring. You bring your puppy home with his microchip number. You are his registered human to be contacted in case of emergency. Everything is as it should be.

And then the unthinkable happens. Your puppy gets away from you. He is lost. You are comforted because he has a microchip. Someone finds your puppy and turns him into the animal shelter, where he is scanned. But they find no microchip. You never see your puppy again.

Microchips are tiny and can migrate in a puppy's body. To anywhere. When a puppy shows up at a rescue or a dog pound or a shelter, the person doing the scanning may not scan everywhere on the puppy. They may simply scan down the puppy's back, where the microchip should be. Or, as happened with a client on vacation, the pup can be scanned almost everywhere. In this case she was not scanned under her armpit, which was where the microchip was found much later by her veterinarian. The puppy was reunited with her family because of phone calls to the right agency in a small town, not because she was microchipped.

So... be prepared.

• Have your veterinarian scan your puppy's microchip on puppy's first visit to confirm that the microchip number matches your microchip paperwork.
• Have your veterinarian re-scan your pup every year during his annual checkup to make sure it is still where it belongs.
• Always include an I.D. tag on your pup's collar. 

One last thing: If you move and/or change your home number, contact the microchip company with your new contact info.