Microchipping

Thousands of pets go missing each year and unfortunately, are never reunited with their owners. The American Humane Association reports that only 2% of lost cats and 15% of lost dogs make it back home. At Avondale Animal Hospital, we recommend your pet be microchipped as it may greatly increase your chances of being reunited with your pet if it were to stray from home. This is one of the most viable forms of identification in the case that you have a lost pet in Birmingham, Alabama.

A collar and ID tag may seem like a reliable form of identification, but collars can break off and tags can become damaged and unreadable. Alternatively, a microchip is about the size and shape of a grain of rice and is placed underneath your pet's skin between the shoulder blades. Microchip implantation is a quick and harmless procedure. Each microchip is unique and carries vital information about your pet, including your name, address and contact information. When a microchip is implanted, the pet owner must register the microchip.

Registering the number on the microchip enrolls your pet in a national pet recovery database. Veterinary hospitals, animal shelters, and animal control offices across the country are equipped with special electronic scanners that can detect the microchip and read the identification number. If a lost pet is picked up by animal control or found by a good samaritan and presented to a veterinarian, a quick scan of the microchip reveals the identification number. A toll-free phone call to the pet recovery database alerts the microchip company that a lost pet has been identified. The pet owner can then be contacted and reunited with his or her pet!