Microchips

[Difficultdora]

Has anyone here had a microchip that has been very difficult to find on their dog because of its migration? We were on holiday and my 18 month dog was scanned by vet nurse for microchip number. It was only because I was insistent that he had one implanted that she persisted and eventually found it. His chip is now on his chest over towards the top of his leg and I can feel it under the skin. I knew that he had one as the breeder had it implanted and had read the number from her reader when I picked him up from her. The nurse told me that her experience was that the younger the dog is when chipped the more likely it was to migrate as the dog grows.

I am concerned that if lost it might be assumed that the dog was not chipped and as he's a gundog with a good pedigree he is also a possible theft risk.

Has anyone else had this problem and have you had another chip implanted? Do you remove the migrated chip?

[NotMyMoney]

My old jack Russell had hers put in at 2 years and it's travelled up her neck 13 now we have a hunting dog also we had her tattooed on the thigh incase she was stolen, they can cut the tattoo out of ears and get the chip out. Tattoo is also registered

[LyndaNotLinda]

All dogs have to be chipped by law now. I'm sure someone would find the chip if anything happened to him. On my dog's pet passport, it describes where the chip is - could you have that info added to his chip record maybe?

[Scuttlebutter]

Most vets/vet nurses are used to this happening, plus dogs that are chipped abroad often have chips inserted in the chest region rather than between the shoulder blades as is common in UK. As foreign chipped dogs are becoming increasingly common in UK (eg overseas rescues) it's good practice to scan all over if you can't find it straight away, and yes chips often migrate!

[RoosterCogburn]

One of our dogs ended up with her chip at the top of her right front leg. I could feel it under the skin and thought she had some kind of small lump so asked the vet to check, turned out to be her migrated chip.

[hennipenni]

If there's room in the back of ID tag you could have chip migrated to.......... If there's enough room

[sugarplumfairy28]

It sounds to me that the nurse you saw either wasn't very well informed about microchips or maybe was just having a bad day. I don't have a dog or puppy with a migrated chip, but I do have a cat with one. It's in her elbow for some reason. We were concerned that if found, nobody would check there. We were told that any decent person, RSPCA, vet or anyone else armed with a chip reader will do a full once over in an attempt to find a chip.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

If a correct 'full body scan' is carried out it should pick up any migrated chip. As an aside vet nurses and vets are now legally required to report migrated chips to the vmd, this does not affect you or your dog, but finally a record is being made of where chips migrate to and who implanted them.