Every two seconds a family pet is lost. This is 10 million pets a year. Tragically, over 90% of pets never make it back home because their owners didn’t identify them.

Shelters and animal hospitals do their very best to locate owners, but if your pet has no form of identification, there’s not much that can be done.

Microchips can make a difference for all pets.

Microchips are tiny chips that contain a personal, one-of-a-kind identification number that distinguishes your pet as a special member of your family.

Although there are a few different microchip companies in existence, no two microchip numbers are the same. These chips are smaller than a grain of rice, and can be easily and painlessly implanted under your pet’s skin using a hypodermic needle.

They are injected beneath the surface of your pet’s skin between the back shoulder blades similar to a routine shot and takes only a few seconds.

The microchip is a permanent pet ID, and will last the life of your pet.

Once your pet is microchipped, you need to ensure that it is then enrolled or registered to the appropriate company. Sometimes owners are responsible for handling the enrollment paperwork, and sometimes the facility that implants the chip will enroll the pet.

If your pet is ever lost and then picked up by a shelter or another veterinary hospital, it will be scanned using a microchip scanner. The microchip scanner is passed over the pet’s shoulder blades and, if there is a chip, the number will be displaced on the scanner face.

Once the shelter or veterinary facility picks up the chip number, they will call the corresponding microchip company, and after a quick search of the national database, you or your veterinarian is contacted.

Contact your veterinarian for more information on microchipping your pet.