Hi
Just been having a bit of a natter about micro chip and tattoo...would appreciate your comments and if you have ever had any problems with either of them :)

Thankyou

Tracey

A bit late now for me to worry about it, as I'm having my youngest hip scored & microchiped on Monday. He is the first I have had chiped and would like to know where the chip should be placed so I can ask and be confident that it is in correct place. Can some one tell me for sure. Thanks.
Ja:)kie

Hi Jackie
brill hip scored and chipped !!! The chip goes in in a similar place to where the vaccinations go, but a bit lower, praps Aoife can be more specific as she does them.But it's in that region anyway, the needle is larger than the vaccinanation one and there's sometimes a bit of a squeal but cruel to be kind !!!
Hope the hips are good ....!!!!! :)

Tracey

Thanks so do I, never had a bad one but don't suppose I'm bomb proof, so fingers crossed for a good low score. Not worried about the needle size hopefully they will do it when he's under, and I do trust my vet but would like to know that whoever does it is sure where it goes don't want it sliding down the leg.
Ja:)kie

Hi Jackie,Bec does microchipping and I helped at one of the chipping sessions, so I have first hand experience, not heresay. The needle does look a bit daunting, but the majority of the dogs that were chipped didnt bat an eyelid. Those that did, well, it was a quick squeal ( like you sometimes get with innoculations) and then it was all forgotten about. The chip goes roughly in the base of the neck/top of shoulder blade area. Hope this helps calm your worries a little.

At the point of the withers where the first thoracic vetebra can be felt? Fussy aren't I. Ja:)kie

:D

The chip goes in between the shoulder blades and most dogs don't even seem to notice. Until the last year or two I always had mine tattooed as did not like the idea of a chip but the tattoos are very hard to read in them.

I now microchip all my pups before they leave me plus any one else's dogs who requests it.

Christine

Once watched a dog being tattooed at a show, Crufts I think, and it was in some pain for a while after. Think it is probable OK in young puppies, but I'm not at all sure about adults and as my breed lay their ears in pleasure the moment anyone touches them I'm not sure it would be a good idea. But as I'm one of those awful people who don't have collars on my dogs except when they are at a show, none of them are traceable to me and I'm feeling more & more worried by that fact. Mind you I'm not sure that people receiving stray dogs check anyway but at least I would not be blaming myself something I would find very hard to cope with.
Ja:)kie

I had one of my Elkhounds done as an adult with her litter, and the rest have all been done at 7 weeks. The oldest two were done using the large lettered calipers, which are not that easy to read when the dots have spread with growth. Since my third litter I have had them done by much smaller calipers where you can hardly see the dots, looks like the numbers are written, and five years later the first of these is easily read by me who has only 20% sight.

The discomfort seems to be forgotten by puppies as soon as they are put on the floor, and with the adult as soon as she had a buscuit! :D

hi jackie h,
as tracey said i do microchipping,the chip should go in under the skin between the shoulder blades, if you pick up the scruff and feel fot the shoulder blades you will create a kind of pocket and the chip will be implanted there, check your vet will do it there and not a anywere place aroud the neck as when vacs are done, this maybe why some that are done may travel slightly , i had my sisters dane , while they were sorting out pet passport as they live in germany now, she was chipped in the january and was going back to them in the september, when she was scanned by the vet it had traveled down and was at the top of her leg,my bitch was done a few months after her vacs and it was done in the corect place and it is still there as i scan her every now and again to cq if there is any migration., my bitch is twelve months, there are people out there that do mobile chipping and attend shows, that cost a lot less than the vets, when i chip i always explain the procedure also somtimes you may get a little bleed,they cq the chip before it is implanted and again after, i also swab the area before the implant, my own vet did none of this,i show my certificate and my public liability insurance to clients if i do a show wether open or excemption i always ask for permission and send copies of the above, i do not do it out the boot of a car as i have seen done, with little regard for hygeine.
personaly i think both tattooing and microchipping are a must as a sure way of identifying your own animal,regards tina

My BC pup is tattooed. I'll probably get her chipped as well when she's grown a bit. The vet who did her second vaccination last week commented, "Oh, she's tattooed! How old-fashioned!". She claimed it's not as easy to trace the owners with a tattoo. If tha tattoo can be read, I don't see why there should be any difference between that and the chip
LynnT

Cynic that I am, I would guess that your vet doesn't offer tattooing, only microchips ;-)

The tattoo v microchip debate is on going, the search facility will bring up lots of threads on this subject :-)

Yes, Leigh, I'm inclined to agree!:) It was also a young vet, not the senior vet who I usually see (who seemed quite happy she was already identifiable when I took her in for a first check and registration).
LynnT

When I went to my vet to finalise the Pet Passport paperwork before my trip to Holland he checked for the chips and couldn't read them. took us five minutes, and changing batteries around etc to find chips we knew were there. Now if those dogs had been in resue kennels and had a quick scan then the chips would have been missed.

Now every dog in rescue kennels should have a veterinary inspection, which includes checking ears. If a tattoo is found, even if a bit overgrown, it can be shaved back, and the tattoo can trace you even with only a partial number, by process of deduction. th first part of the number identifies the tattooist and loication, and the last half is specific to the dog, and the numbers are sequential when a litter is done, so it should be possible to trace the ltter and find out which dog is unaccounted for. As I have said before with the small calipers and black ink I find my dogs tattoos and their siblings that I see very easy to read, and that is with extremely poor sight (20%).

I like to have both, if the chipdoesn;t read then hopefully tattoo will be, and if taattoo missed then maybe chip will read.

I do think that a visible ID makes a dog less easy to pass on if stolen.

My pup can't decide whether her ears are going to be pricked or tipped at the moment so she has one of each and the tattoo is clearly visible, which I would hope would be a deterrant. No doubt she'll change her semaphore message a few times while teething, but I suspect her ears will be coming back up in the end.

HI AOIFE
You found the thread.I think the more identification you can give to your dogs the better,I've never had an unreadable tattoo, spose it depends on wether the person doing it is good or not..I've always had mine done by the same people and touch wood they've been ok.The pups have a squeal but I think it's the fact that they have to hold still more than anything, like brainless says the minute they're on the floor running lose they've forgotten.Cruel to be kind.
Jackie H says that people who find strays don't check , I agree in most cases, but if you ever came across your dog with someone else,it's alot easier to prove it's yours if they have identification, and you have paper work to prove it.
I'm about to embark on the micro chipping course, I think the more dogs we identify the better,and if we can make it a little cheaper than the vets then praps more people will be in a position keep their pets safer.
It's only when you have a dog go missing that you Thank God that they you took precautions to indentify them.So please every one get your dogs indentified with as much as possible...yes there are pro s and con s but at the end of the day is it better to be safe of sorry.

I think the clearness of the tattoo depends more upon the breed than the tattooist. Dobes seem to be fine while they are growing but as they get older the inside of their ears darkens - I had a Dobe pup whose ears went erect at 17 weeks while she was teething and her tattoo at that time almost glowed! Now, a few years later it is barely readable.

Christine

Hi
Just had a thought wouldn't it be great if the micro chip could have a little radar inside so that we could track our dogs if missing...the government could put little scanners all over the country for us and let us know the where abouts of the dogs...:) Do you think they'd do that for us....yeah FAT CHANCE !!!! :(
Ideal world eh??

The radio/micro/whatever waves required to track the dog may do more harm than good though - and just think what the personal liberty (or whatever they are called) people would say - someone could always find you when you were out with your dog :-)

Christine

Hi
As I said ...ideal world...meaning no problems with it being of harm to the dogs, no one but employed people to do the scanning...etc etc.
:)
Tracey

My whippet and whippet-mix are both chipped. Neither was bothered by it any more so than by any other jabs (though the needle does look scary!). Neither chip has travelled, and I periodically get the vets to check that they can be read.

From what I understand all chips now can be read by all scanners, and I would HOPE that a rescue place wouldn't just do a 'quick scan' as everyone has heard of migrating chips and I'm sure they would scan whole body to be sure (at least I would hope they would).

I've not tatooed - perhaps because I remember the ugly tatoos my dachsies had when I was growing up. I think that microchip registers are becoming more universal and it seems (though I don't know for sure) that there are many different tatoo registers. Please corrrect me if I'm wrong. But, for example, my cross wouldn't have a tatoo registered with the KC, so who would have it?

just my thoughts.

Wendy

Hi Wendy

The KC don't register the tattoos although they used to include them on the registration certificate if you asked nicely.

Tattoos are mostly done by, and registered with the NDTR (National Dog Tattoo Register)

Most microchips can be read by most scanners these days - this was not the case with the earlier chips.

Christine

If your dog was tattooed it would be registered withthe NDTR National dog Tattoo Register. The only other registries I am aware of are the Greyhound racing ones. All dog Wardens have been made aware of the tattoo registry. With the Microchips there are a number of registries, and Petlog at the KC will take details of several chip types, and tattoos.

:) I happily stand corrected - as I said I would be LOL. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I don't know if that would have persuaded me away from microchips and toward tattooing though, but it's good info to have for discussion.

Wendy