I have an emergency
Our Village Vet Highgate practice received a call from a kind samaritan who had found a dog. Our staff advised her to bring her in so we could scan for a microchip, as details on the dog’s collar were vague.
We checked the dog for a microchip, after some difficulty we found it. The microchip was from overseas which did not help our quest to find the owner. One of our staff members searched the number on the collar and it turned out to be a number in France.
We eventually managed to speak to someone in France who put us in touch with the owner. The owner was put in touch with the kind samaritan who found the dog. We are pleased to report that the owner and dog have now been reunited. Although this story has a happy ending, we can draw some valuable lessons from this incident:
- When moving countries, it is important to update the microchip information. Databases are limited to individual countries, and hence the information needs to be updated to be compliant with your new place of residence . This may require insertion of a new chip.
- When putting a phone number on a collar, make sure you put a number that is less likely to change. A mobile number might be more useful than a landline number. In the aforementioned story, we were lucky that the number of the collar was of someone that had the current contact details of the owner.
- Microchips can shift around the body of a dog, the microchip, in this case, had moved below the shoulder and could have been missed by the vet. It is important to check the status and location of the chip when you bring your dog in for a routine vet inspection.
