Microchip Failure

I thought I would share my experience finding out that Seppel's microchip no longer works.

Saturday at the trial the dogs have to be scanned to verify their identity via microchip. If the dog isn't chipped but has a tattoo they make sure the tattoo matches the paperwork. Saturday we went to scan Seppel and the chip reader would not pick it up. Another person there had a different scanner. I scanned Seppel all over. The judge knew me and knew my dog, so she vouched for us so we could continue.

On my way home from the trial I couldn't drop the whole microchip fiasco. I stopped at work and tried scanning him with our readers. I then looked up old xrays I had taken of him. I had one chest shot. I could see the chip on the VD [on their back] shot, but could not see it on the lateral.

I called the company because I was worried that he had never been chipped at all. [At that point I hadn't seen the chip in the xray.]. The company confirmed that Seppel had been chipped, his info was all linked to me and the chip was implanted in Florida. I then called a friend and was like "Do you remember if I scanned him?" Talking with my friend I realized that I definitely scanned him because I didn't know if he had a chip or what company he was chipped with. I had to scan him to get the number. I then looked at the xrays again and thought I could see a chip in the one view.

My friend was at work the next day and tried to scan my dog. Nothing. She did point out that the lateral shot I had was not up high enough and maybe that was why I couldn't see the chip. At this point I had thought it had migrated into his chest somewhere.

To make a long story short, my friend was correct. A 2nd lateral[side] xray revealed Seppel's old microchip. We re-chipped him with an AVID ISO/EURO chip. His other microchip is just in front of his new one and absolutely will not work. I called HomeAgain - the company that made the first chip and was told that there is a 1% chance of this happening. They offered to send a new chip, but why would I want a chip from the same company???

This whole thing really kind of freaks me out. If I hadn't gone to a venue where my dog needed to be scanned I would never have known his chip was no longer working. I have the number on file and when I have licensed him etc I just pulled it, I didn't scan him.

The moral of the story - you should probably have your pets scanned at their yearly exam or once in a while check up just to be sure the chip still works!