Microchips

Microchips contain personal identification number that distinguishes your pet as a special member of your family. The chips are so tiny that they fit through a hypodermic needle and, just like most vaccinations, are injected under the skin of our pets where it remains safely for life. This procedure is inexpensive and can be done anytime.

Thanks to microchips, more lost pets are being found. Almost all veterinarians, shelters and even some police stations have a microchip scanner on hand. If your pet is somehow lost, it will hopefully be found and scanned for a microchip. If the chip is present, the number will be used to identify your pet and you as the owner.

At Newtown Vet, we use only encrypted microchips to ensure each number is truly unique to each pet and can never be duplicated. We have a universal scanner to identify most domestic and international chips, regardless of brand or frequency.

Licensing

According to Pennsylvania state law, all dogs 3 months of age and older must be licensed. PA dog license must be renewed every January. To make it easier to keep your license current, The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has approved a lifetime dog license for all pets that have permanent identification, which includes both state-issued tattoo numbers and microchips. The process is simple and can be crucial for keeping your dog safe and getting them back home to you should they ever sneak away.

You may go to www.padoglicense.com to register your dog for a license if you haven’t already, or stop by our office to pick up the forms.

International Travel

Many countries require an ISO approved microchip. There are no encrypted ISO chips currently on the market. Because ISO chips are not as secure as an encrypted chip, we only recommend placing ISO chips in animals who expect to travel internationally. All other pets should be chipped with an encrypted microchip.

Why Bother?

Every two seconds a family pet is lost. Most never make it back home because their owners cannot locate them. Shelters are constantly overcrowded so lost pets can only be kept for a short period of time. More pets die because their owners are unable to locate them than from all infectious diseases combined.