I run a practice that specializes in home visits for cats based in a roughly 10km radius around Ascot, Berkshire – part of my regular checkups for all cats every year are microchip scans – just wish all vets would do the same!
I know a lot of vets see routine scanning as “wasted time” and I too have spent countless hours and phone calls (much of these in my own time) following up on the chips that I have happened to find over the years….once you start to look, you definitely will find!! I recall finding a second chip in a dog that was about to board a flight to Australia which baffled me as to get to that stage of the travel this chip must’ve been missed so many times for the pre-travel blood tests, let alone the rest of the dog’s life… or the cat I saw a month ago that’s chip had stopped working altogether… I was the first person to have checked it routinely since it was placed so goodness knows how long it had been malfunctioning… or if it ever made it into the cat in the first place?
I know scanning every pet does seem to many vets like a time-consuming and often fruitless protocol but I would never stop doing this as I know how much I’d want someone to do this for my pet if they’d been missing or stolen. I think if we are charging to put them in in the first place then we must take responsibility for checking them.
Thanks for letting me help spread the word and good luck with your efforts which I wholeheartedly support!
The Cat Vet
Home Visiting Clinic
www.thecatvet.co.uk
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