Keeping your pet safe and happy is important to all pet owners. Providing a regular regimen of vet visits and feeding them nutritious food is a great start. Yet illness and injury can occur despite your best efforts. If your pet needs medical care when you are on a trip, you cannot take your pet to their normal vet. Yet a health crisis may mean you need access to the pet's medical records. If you have had your pet fitted with a microchip, you have eliminated this problem. Knowing that all of the information is a simple swipe away certainly relieves some of the stress and worry. Getting your pet fitted for a microchip is also an excellent way to ensure that if your pet ever gets lost, you will find him.
Microchips are the new and growing way of making sure that your pet is always in good hands. The microchip functions as an identity tag and also has many other uses. When you purchase a microchip for your dog, you will tell the vet who inserts it all of your contact information. The veterinarian will put that information into a database; you'll be able to access that at any time to update the information when/if it changes. This will ensure that your dog is never lost for too long.
Most animal shelters will hold a lost or runaway pet for a limited amount of time. At the end of that time, if the dog is not claimed, most shelters will need to put the dog to sleep. However, if you have your dog fitted with a microchip, the shelter will have all of the important information to get your beloved pet home to you quickly. This will also save you the effort, stress and time spent putting up fliers and checking shelters for your lost friend. Microchips in dogs have also led to many arrests for animal theft, which in turn has led to a decrease in that activity - and that makes every dog safer in the long run.
Some microchips have extra features that can aid in many different settings. While the standard microchip only retains the pertinent contact information for the owner, other deluxe designs act as GPS locators, making the return of a lost or stolen pet more rapid. They can also include medical records as resources for other vets who are not familiar with your dog. This is particularly valuable information if your dog has a chronic health problem, since it will enable any facility to properly minister to their condition.
More amazing is a microchip that monitors your dog's health. These are designed to monitor important reactions in your dog's system, from heart rate to blood pressure and blood cell count, as well as to identify the presence of harmful toxins. This can help the veterinarian in finding the cause of an ailment, so that necessary treatments can be quickly administered, rather than delayed by testing and lab work.
Having your dog fitted with a microchip is a very good way to ensure that your dog stays with you for a long time. Pets provide companionship and love; with a microchip for your dog, you can ensure that in a crisis situation, your friend will be returned to your family. They are beneficial and relatively inexpensive, considering they are a one-time expense for a beloved pet.
Reference
American Kennel Club Companion Animal Recovery
Microchipping Your Pets, By Jenna Stregowski, RVT, About.com Guide
Microchipping Pets to Save Their Lives, By Carla Hall, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 2011