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Now and again things happen at the clinic which are out of the ordinary and make that particular day stand out in my memory, if this involves a bit of technology then so much the better in my case, this is an account of such a day. I carried out a routine check on a Rottweiler dog which had wandered as a stray into a garden near Runwell Road in Wickford three days previously. Although it was very thin and had a chronic skin condition it was a most affectionate animal and the young couple who brought it in had fallen in love with him and wanted to offer him a permanent home. As it was a stray I ran my chip reader over it and lo and behold the reader beeped, the dog was chipped. One quick phone call later I found out that the owner lived in Portsmouth and the dog had been missing for about eight months. The owner was ecstatic with the news, but very bemused how the dog had arrived in Essex, he drove up the next day and was reunited with his pet who was delighted to see him. I questioned the chap from Portsmouth and found out that it had run away in high spirits in a park which was near a Travelers caravan camp, and of course there is such an encampment near the Runwell Road as well. It seems highly likely that the Travelers took the dog in at Portsmouth and brought him with them to Wickford as they moved about the country. The only down side to this story was the sad expression on the face of young lady from Wickford when I told her that the real owner had been found. You see she had quite decided she was going to keep the dog so I almost felt a bit sorry I had found the chip in the first place.

So what is the technology which enabled me to identify this particular dog? The chip consists of a small electromagnetic coil and a microchip encased in an inert bead of glass which is not much larger than a grain of rice. The chip is inserted under the dog’s skin with a device similar to a hypodermic syringe and is usually quite painless when it is put in. The usual injection site is between the shoulder blades, this procedure is normally carried out in the consulting room with the owner present. Once implanted the chip remains inactive until it senses the signal from a nearby microchip reader, it then responds and transmits its unique code number which is displayed in the electronic display window of the reader. When we have chipped a dog we log the unique identification number on a central national database, we put it on our own computer system, and we also supply a sticker with the number on it for the animal’s vaccination card. I would imagine that all vets, RSPCA centres, rescue kennels and such places would now have a chip reader. We as a vet clinic have an individual pass code which lets us phone in to the central database and retrieve the owner’s details from the chip number, this can also be done over the internet. Some people have said to me in the past why bother with implanting a chip? Why not just have an address tag on the collar? Well this case answers that, the person who found the dog in Portsmouth actually removed the collar, but they had no way of knowing about the identichip.

Well alls well that ends well, I am minded of the old expression “My Mother said I never should play with the Gypsies in the wood “and I have followed this advice …. I always take them back to my place !!!!