Providing your pet with a microchip increases the chance that you
will be reunited with your pet if the animal wanders (or runs) off and
becomes lost, or is stolen. At Hillsdale Veterinary Hospital, we implant
the most widely used brand of microchip: HomeAgain™. Each microchip
contains a unique number that is assigned to a single pet. Odds are very
good that the owner will be notified when her missing animal has been
found, because over 50,000 vets and shelters in the United States have
the equipment to read a HomeAgain™ microchip.
Two included services help make HomeAgain™ the most popular microchip among pet owners:
1. When a pet is reported as missing, HomeAgain™ sends out an alert to its Pet Recovery Network. Members within a 25-mile radius of where a pet disappeared are given a description and instructed to watch for the lost animal.
2. HomeAgain™ will contribute up to $500 to the cost of bringing your pet back home if, when found, he is more than 500 miles from where he went missing.
Implanting the microchip is a quick and easy procedure for your pet. In the skin between the shoulder blades where the microchip is implanted, there are relatively few pain receptors; therefore, implanting the rice-sized chip causes no more discomfort than a regular injection. If the owner prefers, however, we can insert the microchip at the time of another procedure for which the pet is receiving anesthesia--for instance, during her dental cleaning. Once the microchip is implanted, its presence under the skin is undetectable. Dr. Baker has never seen a patient have an adverse effect from implanting a HomeAgain™ microchip.
After the implantation, we enter your pet’s microchip number and your contact information into a nation-wide database, so HomeAgain™ can reach you when your pet is located. If you move or change your phone number, remember to update your information in the database using a simple form on the HomeAgain™ website.