Pet Microchipping

More dogs go missing in the days around the Fourth of July in Toledo than at any other time of year. The fireworks downtown at Hensville Park, the displays in Maumee and Waterville, and the backyard fireworks going off across every neighborhood create a noise environment that panics dogs that have never reacted badly before. A normally calm dog bolts through a fence, the collar comes off in the scramble, and suddenly the only way to connect that dog back to you is a chip. A microchip is a small implant about the size of a grain of rice that sits just under the skin between the shoulder blades. It does not move and it does not wear out. When a lost pet comes into Lucas County Canine Care, the Toledo Humane Society, or any vet clinic in the area, the first thing staff does is scan for a chip. If your pet has one and the registration is current, you get a call. The implant takes about 30 seconds during a regular visit. No sedation and no recovery time. Most pets flinch the way they do for a routine vaccine. If your pet is already coming in for surgery, we can add the chip while they are under so they will not feel anything. The part people most often skip is registration. A chip with no registered contact information does not help get your pet back to you. We register the microchip to your pet with your current information before you leave which puts your pet's chip in a national searchable database. When a lost pet is brought in to be scanned and a microchip is found, the clinic or organization that scanned the pet can not read your personal information (phone, address, name). The scan only reveals the microchip number which is then used to contact the registry which then gets in touch with you. That is why it is so important to keep your information (phone and name) up to date on the microchip. If you move or need to change any information on the microchip you can do that yourself via phone or website of the microchip company. If you adopted your pet from a Lucas County shelter, they were likely chipped before you brought them home. What a lot of owners do not realize is that the contact information may still be registered to the shelter, not to you. We can help you update that. We chip dogs, cats, rabbits, and ferrets. We serve families in Toledo, Sylvania, Maumee, Perrysburg, Ottawa Hills, Lambertville, and throughout northwest Ohio. Call us at (419) 475-3456 to add microchipping to your next visit.