11-21-2007, 09:35 AM
The shelter I adopted my cat from required chips before releasing the animals to new homes. She made the rounds of shelters twice, once as a kitten and once as an adult, being chipped both times. The second round, no one bothered to verify that she already had a chip, so she's now got Home Again on one side, and I think Avid on the other. Confuses my vet no end, as their database can hold one chip but not both, so she has to be listed under a second dummy account.
On the whole, I do think chipping is a good idea, but the implementation is pretty lousy. Separate scanners, poor communication to maintain current records, etc all make the good idea not as useful as it could be in practice.
One thing some vets do (my previous one did this) was check the chip at every visit as a reminder to update info and to verify the correct animal is being treated. Rather like barcodes on hospital wristbands. That's a smart use of the chip.
Racer, I know you foster, do you do it for PAWS or one of the other groups? My fuzzball is a former resident of Cat City.
On the whole, I do think chipping is a good idea, but the implementation is pretty lousy. Separate scanners, poor communication to maintain current records, etc all make the good idea not as useful as it could be in practice.
One thing some vets do (my previous one did this) was check the chip at every visit as a reminder to update info and to verify the correct animal is being treated. Rather like barcodes on hospital wristbands. That's a smart use of the chip.
Racer, I know you foster, do you do it for PAWS or one of the other groups? My fuzzball is a former resident of Cat City.