Confused About Microchips — Which is Best?
Our question this week was:
A while back we implanted microchips in our 3 dogs. I am not sure if we really every got them properly registered or not. If we did, our information would be out of date anyway. I went online, and to my frustration, I have found place after place that claims to be the ultimate pet microchip registry. Bottom line, who are the shelter/police/animal welfare people going to call if they find my dogs? Who is the safest place to register my dogs with? I have searched everywhere and have not found any meaningful answers to this very important question.
Thank You,
Jamie Dolan – Neenah, Wisconsin
Answer
Hi – thanks for your email Jamie. You are right; the microchip registry can be confusing. The problem began ages ago when some chips were not readable with other companies’ scanners. We have an article about this but I’ll try to summarize the prior problem.
AVID® microchips read on a frequency of 125 khz and have been commonly used in veterinary hospitals and shelters across the United States. They have universal scanners that can identify chips from other microchip companies that are also 125 khz. Controversy involving microchips exists because one company (Banfield®) introduced a chip that was 134.2 khz and incompatible with other readers. Therefore, pets chipped with Banfield® microchips could not be identified with the most common microchip scanners on the market in the U.S. Banfield has since stopped selling the undetectable microchips in their clinics.
No matter what brand you choose, the MOST important thing you can do is get your pet microchip registered to YOU and keep your data current. You can even register with 24Petwatch, the largest lost pet registry in North America, right at PetPlace.
Annually confirm your pet’s information with the 24Petwatch microchip database and ensure that all contact information including your address, home and cell phone numbers, email address, and pager number, etc are all current.
Best of luck!
Dr. Debra