Tips On How To Prevent Losing A Pet
Whether someone forgets to close the gate and the dog gets out or the cat slips past an opening front door, mistakes do happen. Whatever the reason, animals can and do get lost. Ensuring you reduced any loopholes is the best way to ensure a speedy return of your pet.
Spay & Neuter
Animals that are not spayed or neutered (intact) are the most determined to adventure away from home. The interest in finding a mate blurs intact animal's judgment and will entice them farther away from home. By ensuring your animal is spayed or neutered you will not only be bylaw compliant but you will also be ensuring your animal has less interest in wandering away from home.
Identification
Ensuring your animal has PERMANENT identification in way of a microchip or tattoo is vital in enabling a quick return of your beloved pet. It is also important to keep your contact information updated with the organization that manages one of these forms of identification.
Licencing
Tattoo
A tattoo in the right ear is the most common form of permanent identification. However, many owners do not understand how the tattoo system works. 3 letters and 3 numbers are tattooed in the ear (usually during spay or neuter surgery).
For example:
| HM W 123 | |
|---|---|
| HM | = Veterinary hospital that did the tattoo (in this case, Tsawwassen Animal Hosp.) |
| W | = the year the tattoo was done (In this case, 2009). This code is set by the British Columbia Veterinary Medical Association which is the governing body of all veterinarians in the area. |
| 123 | = is assigned to the animal and will match the records kept at the vet hospital |
It is important that every owner ensures their contact information is updated at the veterinary hospital associated to their pets tattoo AND that they can read the tattoo, as tattoo's do have a tendency to fade over time.
Microchip
Microchips can be implanted while your pet is awake or while under anesthetic for a procedure such as a spay or neuter. The microchip is the size of a grain of rice and is injected just under the skin with a needle type system. Once implanted the microchip is not felt by the animal.
Microchips are often used as an alternative to tattoos but they work very well as an extra form of permanent identification. Veterinary hospitals and animal welfare organizations (such as DCAS and the SPCA) have a scanner that detects and reads microchips. The code that is attached to the microchip is associated to a company that keeps the owners contact information on file. It is vital that the owner keeps copies of the microchip code and updates the microchip company with their contact information.
With both systems (tattoo and microchip) it is important to update contact information for the owner of the pet. Often animals that come into DCAS have these forms of identification but the owner has failed to update their information. Therefore, despite our efforts we are unable to reunite pet and owner.
Top
