We all want to keep our much loved pet safe, and there is no greater worry than losing them. It’s a sad fact that nearly 1000 pets go missing every day and only a small proportion of them ever find their way home. Pets can stray for a number of reasons; they can become spooked during thunder storms or firework season, wander too far from home or become a little too curious whilst out on a walk.

As collars can easily drop off, micro chipping your pet is a much more effective way of making sure they do not stray too far from home. However there is a wealth of information out there which can be very confusing.

There are lots of chips available and it can be hard to know which is best. Microchips can range vastly in terms of quality and readability so it is important to get the right one. It is also vital that there is a robust database available for the lifetime of your pet to ensure peace of mind and make sure your prying pooch or travelling tortoise can be found quickly.

You can micro chip any pet! From fish (yes really!) to skunks and even teddy bears (5 were chipped in 2003), our much loved animals are clearly very important to us.

So how can you cut through the information and get the basics about micro chipping? Fortunately we have pet veterinarian Emma Milne, along with Caroline Kisko of the Kennel Club, who will be live online in our web TV show to answer all your questions on keeping track of your pet. So submit a question now or tune in on the day – your pet will thank you later!

Emma Milne joins us live online at www.studiotalk.tv on Friday 28^th May at 13.00 to discuss micro chipping

For more information visit www.tracer-microchips.co.uk

Bayer Webchat

H: Vicky Letch

A: Emma Milne, TV Vet

B: Caroline Kisko, the Kennel Club

H: An incredible 1000 pets a day go missing in the UK with only a small proportion of them finding their way home. Today on Pet Talk we’re going to show you how you can keep tabs on your curious cats and meandering mutts

Titles

H: Hello and welcome to Pet Talk I’m Vicky Letch. Now the thought of losing a much loved pet is one of the greatest worries an owner can have, and there are several reasons they can disappear – sometimes it’s down to their own natural curiosity, perhaps wandering too far from home or maybe they’re frightened by loud noises such as fireworks. Now we’re going to be telling you about a micro-chipping system for your pet that’s safe, secure and lasts for life but before we meet our guests let’s see what we have coming up in the show. So it’s not just for dogs and cats, reptiles, rabbits and even your pet koi carp can be chipped how the technology works to keep track of your animal, and dispelling the myths and misconceptions about micro-chipping. So joining me to discuss this and much more is TV vet Emma Milne who many of you will recognise from the BBC series Vets in Practice and Caroline Kisko from the Kennel Club. Welcome to you both, thanks for coming in. Now do remember of course we are live so if you have any questions do pop them in the box below and click send, we’ll answer as many as we possibly can. We’ve had lots already but do keep them coming in. So walking down the street going into any newsagent you see posters all the time of missing animals, and they’re heartbreaking, but how much of a problem is it really?

A: Well I think the stats say that about 1000 pets every day go missing in the UK

H: Wow

A: Which is, you know -

H: Huge

A: A huge number. I guess from our – in our experience a lot of those are cats, because obviously they’re out and about and they get locked in places and things, but obviously dogs, unmated males tend to have one thing on their mind, they go wandering and as you said before things like loud noises and phobias can cause dogs to run and panic. Even things like tortoises have a habit of doing a bit of a Houdini and trundle off

H: Must take them a while to trundle

A: Yes you’ve got to be not very vigilant to notice where they’ve gone!

H: Yes and it must be just so heartbreaking for the owners when they lose their pets, must be awful

A: Yes I mean – well we obviously we’ve had – I’ve had pets all my life and I’ve lost pets, not lost in that sense but when they – when you lose them, when they die it’s absolutely devastating and for people when that happens, when they lose their pets, they don’t know what happens to them it’s equally as devastating

H: Yes absolutely

A: And obviously some of those animals are – tragically if they can’t be identified, end up in shelters and could be euthanized just because they aren’t identified

H: Absolutely. Caroline we’re going to be talking about micro-chipping today and hopefully getting rid of some of the myths surrounding it, and worries and concerns that owners might have

B: Yes I think it’s important that people realise that the benefits of micro-chipping are massive, in comparison to the very few downsides. I think as far as a pet is concerned it’s a relatively painless procedure which they go through to be micro-chipped, as probably the only downside and then you do need to make sure that you keep your data up-to-date. So if a pet is found, is scanned and you know where the pet should be, that means that you have to make sure that your address details are kept up-to-date

H: Absolutely and we’re going to talk about all of this in great detail, but before we carry on we just want to give you a bit of background to the whole area of micro-chipping your pet, now Emma paid a visit to the Medivet surgery in Hertfordshire recently to meet Tuli and her owner Jo, and explain what a simple procedure pet micro-chipping can be

Video Footage

Today we’re in the Medivet practice in Hertfordshire and this is Jo with her dog Tuli. As you can see Tuli is a 3 year old very happy, healthy black Labrador. So Jo what made you think about having her chipped?

Well obviously Tuli is quite a big dog and she kind of does take me for a walk around the park sometime and so I’d hate for some reason she gets lost an then you know she’s lost to me forever. I just want to be safe rather than sorry

Yes. And do you have any concerns about it at all?

Well I’m just a bit worried if it hurts and kind of how long it lasts, whether I have to renew it?

I think they’re both very natural concerns particularly with the pain, but I mean particularly with dogs like Tuli, you know she is a happy Labrador and if you put a biscuit in front of her she probably wouldn’t even notice. It is just like having any other injection like a vaccination or an antibiotic and in dogs it goes under the scruff of the neck where there’s all the loose skin. As for how long it lasts, it’s absolutely for life, so you don’t need to worry that you’re going to keep having her injected, you know every two or three years or that kind of thing, because if you think they’re designed even to be for tortoises that can last a hundred years, there’s no way that it’s going to fail in the lifetime of this little lady.

So I’ll show you how simple it is, all the chips come in these sterile packs and in sterile implanters so you haven’t got any worries about infection or contamination. So we just take the lid off and then we literally just pull the skin at the scruff up, give it a little rub and that’s it

Well done

H: So Emma are they two of the main concerns that owners have when we’re looking at micro-chipping and are there more concerns?

A: I think the big one is the pain and often when we’re doing it in puppies and kittens, because if you think the scruff of the neck is where a mother would pick the animals up, it’s quite an insensitive area. And often if you give it a good rub first, they have a few biscuits, they’re distracted, most of them don’t even notice you’ve done it. Obviously with any species, human or otherwise –

H: Yes

A: You’re going to have some that have got a slightly lower pain threshold than others

H: Yes

A: So you sometimes get a squeak when it goes in. To be honest I think, as Caroline said it’s over so quickly that even dogs that do experience a bit of discomfort, the benefits far outweigh that

H: Ok

A: I think people really worry about the pain. How long it lasts, I think with the cost as well people wonder if they’re going to have to either keep having the chip done or keep paying for it, and this is the great thing, it’s so simple, it’s one payment and that registers the animal for life, and one injection, and you know compared to everyone moaning about the vets bills, but compared to most other things we do at the surgery it’s incredibly cheap

H: Yes

A: It’s probably £10-£20 depending on where you have it done

H: Ok. I think probably it’s maybe a little bit more painful for the owner, because we don’t like to see the ones that we love in any sort of pain, isn’t it –

A: Yes

H: So it’s overcoming that emotional side of it

A: And also people have the anticipation of it. You know whenever we think we’re going to have a needle, we – it’s usually an intramuscular injection which is much more painful than the ones we give to animals, and we get ourselves worked up about it whereas most animals they don’t know it’s coming

H: Exactly

A: It’s over so –

B: And we’re tense, we go tense and that makes it worse whereas a dog doesn’t

H: Yes exactly. So Caroline the Kennel Club is really behind this initiative. Can you tell us a bit more about the Pet Log database?

B: Well Pet Log Database is actually the largest in the UK but interestingly it’s also linked with the European pet databases, so if you take your dog overseas it’s still covered, so if you lose it in France say we would be able to track it back in the UK. But importantly it means that all of the data that you have surrounding your pet, your phone numbers, your address, your mobile number, where you’re on holiday etc etc is all in one place and that means that if you’ve got a solid database and you also have 24/7 cover in terms of telephone access, the moment your pet is found, the moment it’s scanned they can phone Pet Log and we can tell you exactly, or we can tell the finder exactly who owns that pet and where you might be at that moment in time

H: Ok, and how secure is it, how safe is it?

B: Totally secure because that data is only available to those people who are – who have a scanner and can actually access the database

H: Ok brilliant. Now as I said we’re live so we are taking questions from you at home, and I’ve got a question here from Carl in Surrey, thank you Carl. He says “my cat’s really hard to handle but I would like to get her chipped. If found how easy would she be to scan and could she be scanned from a distance?”

A: Well some of the – this is one thing to ask when you’re going in and looking to having your pet chipped is to find out which chips the vet’s using and which database, because you want to have a database that’s going to be there. If you go on Pet Log you’re guaranteed to be there, whereas some of the others could go bust, but so yes, with the chip, some of the scanners, some of the chips don’t read as well as others so some of the cheaper ones you might want to avoid, but things like the Tracer chips that we use read from a long distance, so it’s not like you could you know wander round the streets trying to find an animal, but certainly if you had a cat in a box you would be able to read a chip, probably, from outside the box but certainly if you just had the cat on the table you know if you went over an area like this

H:Yes

A: The reader should pick them up

H: Ok

A: And I think also people worry about cats that are very difficult to handle, and if people are really worried about the pain, often we can do them, you know if the animal’s coming in to be spayed or castrated we can just chip them at the same time, so just from that point of view if he was worried about the handling of the actual chipping both those scenarios should be absolutely fine

H: Ok Carl I hope that’s answered your question. Now coming up in part two we’re going to take a closer look at how the Tracer system works, but here’s the second part of Emma’s report looking at some of the myths around micro-chipping

Video Footage

There are plenty of myths and misconceptions about micro-chipping pets. People worry about the discomfort for the animal but Tracer chips are hardly bigger than a grain of rice. With a comprehensive system like this one you have the Pet Log secure database and individual wallets for all of your pet’s documentation. The chip is scanned by passing a chip reader over the area like this. Remember that chips do vary in quality but some, like Tracer chips are much easier to read than others which is important because the scanners can vary too. And unlike some that you may have heard of, the manufacturers of Tracer chips won’t sell your data to third parties which I know for some people is, you know, quite a worry.

So Emma what happens if Tuli gets lost?

Basically wherever she gets lost she’ll be taken to a vet or a shelter or a dog warden and all of those places will have scanners and immediately the database she’s registered with will have all your details. There’s someone there 24/7 so even if she went missing and did get found in the idle of the might there’d always be someone on the phone so you don’t need to worry

Ok thanks

That’s alright

H: Welcome back. Here on Pet Talk we’re talking micro-chipping with Emma Milne and Caroline Kisko. Now we’ve had numerous questions in since we’ve been on air so I’m going to start running through some of those right now. And do keep them coming in of course if you have any questions that you’d like answered. So I’ve got one here from, let’s say – Martin. Martin – “my dog has a chip which is hard to detect. Should I get a new one done?”

A: In that situation I would say yes. If you’ve got a chip that is difficult to scan, then the chances are – well you’ve got quite a high chance if the dog went missing and was scanned that – they may think that it isn’t chipped and then it would be treated as an un-chipped animal and couldn’t be identified and would end up in a shelter

H: Right

A: If you have a second one implanted basically what you would do is you’d have both the details registered and you just write to the database and make sure that they knew both were there because the chances are that every time then the dog was scanned the better chip would be picked up first all the time, so the other chip would effectively disappear, although it would still be in the – you know dog. So yes I would get a second one in and just make sure that the people who run the database know that both numbers are there

H: Ok brilliant. Martin I hope that helps. This one’s from Tanya in Birmingham, thank you very much, says “what will happen if my pet is found by the police and do they have readers?”

B: The vast majority of the police would have readers, but even if they haven’t then they’ll work in conjunction with the local dog warden or even with one of the welfare homes. Hopefully the police will have a reader, it will have a battery and it will be working and actually that’s generally the quickest route to get your pet back, that the person who finds it is an official in some capacity has a reader, or maybe might even take the pet to a local vetinary practice. Anybody who can scan them quickly will then phone up the database, will then make sure that they get the details, and quite often people get their pet back even before they realise it’s gone missing

H: Oh really?

B: Yes

H: That’s amazing

B: They’ll get a phone call to say we’ve got your dog or cat

H: No you haven’t it’s here

B: Oh it’s in the garden, oh no it’s not

H: This one’s from Anthony in Glasgow, thanks Anthony – “what do you have to” – oh sorry “why do you have to have a chip when you travel?”

A: Basically it’s so that you can identify the dog or cat or ferret which are the three on the pet scheme that you can take, although taking a ferret abroad seems a bit odd –

H: Yes I’m not too sure about that one to be honest!

A: No but it’s basically because obviously particularly with pedigree dogs where they’re actually designed to be – to look the same, you could take a chocolate Labrador abroad that’s had a rabies – that hasn’t had a rabies vaccination and say that it’s a dog that has had a rabies vaccination

H: Ok

A: So the authorities who are trying to stop infectious disease coming into the country have got to be certain the dogs that are rabies tested are the ones coming back in. Basically when you have a passport the dog has a vaccination for rabies and then a blood test to make sure that it has actually got immunity and that dog has to be chipped for all of those processes to happen, so that you have absolutely no doubt of which dogs are coming in and out

H: Ok. Now just to clarify we’re not just talking about dogs and cats are we, it can be all sorts of pets. Melissa in Croyden, she says “how does a tortoise get chipped? Is it different to a cat or dog?”

A: It’s – all of the chipping is basically the same implanters, the same chips, it’s the same technology, it just goes into different places on the animal depending on the animal, so in a tortoise it goes into the area by – in the back leg, just behind the shell –

H: See I was wondering where on earth you’d actually –

A: If you ever look, if you ever have cause to look at the back of a tortoise

H: Yes

A: When you pull the legs out they’ve got quite a nice sort of flap of skin there that’s quite loose and it just sits under there. So it’s basically just trying to find the area you know in the horse it goes into a big ligament in the neck

H: Yes

A: So we just try and find places in the different species where they’re going to cause – you know you don’t want it underneath the saddle for instance

H: Yes exactly, yes. So we – can we actually have a look at the chip – you’ve got the implanter have you?

B: Well that’s – this is the actual implanter

H: Ok

B: Which is basically like a little plastic syringe, and then the chip itself – oh where’s it gone?

H: It’s disappeared

B: They’re so tiny

A: It is so tiny – I think it might have rolled under there.

B: Yes it did

A: There it is

B: Well done Emma. Hang on, we will find it

A: You don’t have to worry about something bulky going in

H: Yes

B: it is tiny

H: I mean it’s literally like a grain of rice isn’t it?

B: It is

H: really small

B: Like a grain of rice. And that’s why the dogs, cats – they really don’t feel it very much because they’ve got such loose skin.

H: Ok

A: So basically this is one of the readers, and if just Caroline just demonstrates that

B: Oh yes sure

A: So I would just scan over the top and then as – sorry, I pressed the wrong button – and then as it goes over the chip you just get the number of the chip, and that’s how it works

H: Very clever, and very straightforward as well. I’ve got a question here from Sarah in Oxford and Sarah says “I’ve got an 8 week old puppy” – gorgeous – “is it too young to be chipped?”

A: 8 weeks is about the time that we do most of them because we tend to do it when they come in for their first vaccination and 8 weeks is when we often see them. It’s when they tend to leave their mums, hopefully you know if the person’s kept them as long as we want them to. You can do them younger than that but when they’re very small, I think the microchip council recommends not less than 6 weeks but basically yes from 6 weeks you can chip them

B: There is still a bit of a concern amongst some people that they shouldn’t be done before they’re bigger, but actually the vetinary advice is very much that they should be done younger and we would certainly support that because it’s actually when they go to their first home when they’re very young, you know they’re trotting about the place and maybe not thinking too much about their new owner that they’re most likely to come unstuck and get lost, especially amongst kittens. So I think it’s extremely good advice to get them done young

H: Yes brilliant. Ok well coming up in the final part of the Pet Talk show we’ll take some more of your questions and concerns about micro-chipping, how it works and is it safe?

Break

H: Welcome back to the final part of Pet Talk. Now Emma this is microchip awareness month isn’t it, hope I got that right

A: Yes that’s right

H: So what are we hoping to achieve with that campaign?

A: Well it’s basically you know the survey’s done round the country have shown that not surprisingly 70-80% of people say they spoil their pets rotten, they love them, they’re family members. But only about 40-45 over the areas have had them chipped

B: Percent

A: Percent, yes sorry. So basically it’s about trying to get rid of those misconceptions, you know people either don’t know that it’s possible or they think it’s going to hurt, they think it’s going to be expensive you know all of those worries is just to try and dispel that, but also to raise awareness of the different databases and different chips, because we want people to be asking the right questions about the chips they’re getting

B: It’s very, very important that people do choose the good database that the product that they are having implanted in their dog or cat is going to go onto, because if you do have a poor database, if you have one that maybe you can’t get through to on the telephone, or might even be overseas because there are overseas databases now operating in the UK, and we shouldn’t be buying things on price. Actually at the end of the day, the person who is chipping your dog is probably going to charge you exactly the same price, no matter what they’re paying for the chip, so you need to ask the question beforehand as to where your data is going to be stored and you need a reliable database, as Emma said earlier, one that’s going to be there for the future because there’s no point in having your dog or cat micro-chipped if the database doesn’t exist in a few years’ time

H: Ok now we are running out of time but I can squeeze in a couple more questions, this one’s from Jackie Bunn, thanks Jackie. “I work in dog rescue and regularly hear of dogs that have been re-homed from pounds, despite being chipped with the original owners powerless to get their dogs back because micro-chipping is not an indicating of the legal” – ok what can be done about this?

B: Well I understand her question, she’s concerned obviously because a dog might actually be re-homed because either the rescue centre didn’t scan the dog properly, or it may be didn’t even go through a pound – sorry, a rescue centre just was handed onto somebody else. Maybe even was stolen from the street. The important thing is that actually when the pet first goes into a surgery, so it goes into the vet’s for some reason, if the vet then scans the dog and discovers when they then look on the database, because they have access to the Pet Log database, if they discover that actually there’s a different name and address on the database to the one that the owners are, then they can actually put the two in touch with each other via Pet Log, so Pet Log will act almost as a sort of – well will act as an agency to put the previous owner and the current owner in touch with each other, and in many, many cases the new owner will part with the animal back to the previous owner, because there has been a mix-up

H: Yes absolutely ok. Now we’re just going to end with a nice story, this is from Jenny, Jenny Redook, thank you – “my cat was returned to me in Hampshire after a vet in Wales contacted me because my cat had been micro-chipped. He’d been missing for 3 months.” I can’t believe the journey these animals go on

B: We get so many stories into Pet Log of animals that have been missing for 3, 4, 5 years even

H: That’s incredible isn’t it?

B: That they come back eventually and it’s entirely thanks to the microchip, because there’s no way otherwise that you would know that the animal ever belonged to somebody else, and –

A: Often cats jump into cars, so that’s how they get those distances

H: Oh is that what they do?

A: Yes so when you’re loading your car –

B: And then they can’t find their way home

A: The door’s open – one of my cats is always trying to get in our car, and then they end up popping out the other end

H: Amazing, that’s an amazing story Jenny thank you so much, and thank you so much to the pair of you

B: Thank you

A: Thanks

H: Well we have run out of time, we hope we’ve shared some useful advice and hopefully dispelled a few of those myths about micro-chipping your pets. For more information about the Tracer system do log onto Tracer-microchips.co.uk. From Emma, Caroline and me, goodbye

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