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Microchipping

AilsaDS

Warren Scout
I was just wondering how many of you have your buns microchipped & do you think it's worthwhile doing?

Also, if your bun is microchipped, does your vet know?


I got my bunny microchipped @ the rescue centre when I adopted him & when I informed my vet he told me that the vet practice didn't routinely check buns for microchips because they didn't know that the York RSPCA chip them :?
But now they're going to check buns as well as cats & dogs.
 
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Personally, I'm not a fan of microchipping in any animal. It's a foreign body that shouldn't be there and they have a habbit of moving about so they don't always end up in the same area that they were injected into.

My MIL's dog has a huge area of thickened scar tissue in the back of his neck where his chip is. It drives him crazy coz it's all itchy all the time.

With my bunnies, it's extremely unlikely that they'd get out of my garden and, to be totally honest, if they did, it's also extremely unlikely that they'd survive to find they're way back to me :cry: I back onto a busy main road.

So in answer to your question, none of my bunnies are microchipped and I wouldn't have them done. But this is just MY opinion as I know other people have great things to say about them, which is fair enough.
 
I'm sort of on the same wave length on microchipping for bunnies. I think the chance of them surviving the urban fox if they got out is very slim and being caught by someone who would take them to a vet who would check for microchip probably even slimmer,
 
Mine are all chipped. If they escaped, or someone stole them I want there to be the maximum possible chance that I could get them back. I would inform all of the local vets that they were missing and provide photos and ask them to scan any rabbits for chips.
 
I had Dex microchipped when he was castrated. Vet sorted it all out and sent the registration dox to petlog for me. It was brilliant and neither dex or I have had any problems with it. Yes, sometimes they do move about but I just figured If someone stole him or he wandered off its something that might mean he would come back to me. Probably not, but i'd do anything for that bun, so its a harmless precaution as far as i'm concerned.

I had him castrated for his health and welfare, try to feed him the best food I can get and try to keep him safe/warm/entertained etc... as any responsible pet owner should... just think this is an extension of that. But again, just my opinion. Its a personal choice.
 
Mine are both chipped :wave: my RSPCA chips them before sending them off to a new home. At the moment I live in a rented house with a secure garden but that might not always be the case, so I would very much rather that I gave them every oppertunity of being found just in case, though tbh I think it's 'peace of mind' for me more than anything else.

The fact that they were both strays handed in to the RSPCA shows that rabbits do survive and don't always get eaten by foxes if they escape :) Actually quite a number of the rabbits at my local RSPCA are strays, the foxes around here are really not very good at hunting...
 
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I'm a big fan of chipping. We've had a few stray bunnies brought in to the vets and we always scan them. It's such good value for lifelong ID.
 
I think microchipping of cats and dogs should be law.
Working in a rescue I can see the value of that everyday when people are reunited with their lost pet.

I haven't chipped my buns, and with hindsight I should have got them done whilst they were under GA for their spays, but I won't get them done now as realistically the chances of them escaping from my garden are pretty slim - it's like colditz out there - and I can't bear them to have it done concious.
 
I have both of my rabbits microchipped because they go into boarding once a year so they are moved around a bit and I want to know that if they did escape then there is a greater chance of them coming back to me.
 
I think microchipping of cats and dogs should be law.

I think it should be law that they all have a permanent form of identification but I also firmly believe it should be up to the owner whether that's a microchip or a tatoo.

Would YOU want a microchip (foreign body) inserted in the back of your neck???? If it's not good enough for me, it's not good enough for my pets.
 
Would YOU want a microchip (foreign body) inserted in the back of your neck???? If it's not good enough for me, it's not good enough for my pets.

Lots of women choose the contraceptive implant, that's very similar.

Animals sometimes can't find their way home so I think it's a good idea. Visual methods of ID can be destroyed e.g. if an animal is stolen. Microchipping is more likely to enable an owner to get their animal back.

Both mine are microchipped and even though they can't escape I feel safer in the knowledge that if they do get out somehow I have done everything in my power to enable me to get them back.
 
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Lots of women choose the contraceptive implant, that's very similar.

Animals sometimes can't find their way home so I think it's a good idea. Visual methods of ID can be destroyed e.g. if an animal is stolen. Microchipping is more likely to enable an owner to get their animal back.

Both mine are microchipped and even though they can't escape I feek safer in the knowledge that if they do get out somehow I have done everything in my power to enable me to get them back.

Each to their own I suppose. We must all do what we believe is best for our own pets.
 
Would YOU want a microchip (foreign body) inserted in the back of your neck???? If it's not good enough for me, it's not good enough for my pets

I'd probably prefer one to a tattoo to be honest :lol: I do take your point that it's a foreign body but there are so many of them out there and so few problems with them that I think it's a risk worth taking for my cats. Yes they do sometimes migrate but overall they don't tend to cause problems even if they do move.

I don't think I'd bother doing the rabbits (and I certainly wouldn't do a rabbit conscious!) but for the cats it definitely gives me peace of mind that I stand a really good chance of finding out what has happened to them or getting them back if they should go missing in any way. On balance, I think there's more risk of them going missing than there is of a microchip causing them a problem :)
 
Properly done a microchip can be inserted as easily as an injection. Much preferable to a tattoo in my opinion.
I'm planning on getting mine microchipped at their next booster if I remember :)
 
All of my girls have bio-therm chips, so scanning them will also bring up their temperatures :thumb:
 
I have had Bella and Oscar micro chipped as a precaution more than anything...I hear so many buns going missing/stolen on here and although I have a secure garden and padlocked hutch, at least I'd have hope if they was ever to disappear..I watched them being done and they were both injected and did'nt flinch, it was so quick...I feel I made the right choice, you have to do what you feel is right at the end of the day :D
 
I'm a vet nurse and i also believe that microchipping should become compulsory. However, at this stge i should admit that i do not have y bunnies chipped. The main reason for this is that none of the four vet practices i have worked in have ever routinely scanned bunnies for chips (I'm sure if a stray bunny was brought in we would scan it as we do for every stray cat and dog) and therefore i feel it a waste of time. Plus, the chances of anyone bringing a stray rabbit it are slim and the chances of mr.fox finding my stray rabbit before a very kind member of the public are pretty high.

I have to say though, if it were to be compulsory i would think that far more people would think twice before abandoning their pet. I can understand that circumstance change and people are not always able to keep their pet for the duration of its life, but to dump it, abandon it or worse is simply not acceptable. As a pet owner they should either hand it over to a rescue or even better, find it a home themselves. At work, we have reunited so many owners with their pets simply because the pet has a chip. the owner is nearly always contactable on the same day we receive the pet. However, an un-chipped pet often stays with us for 7 days before we find a new owner.

I also think that responsible pet ownership should be taught at school (i dont mean as a full subject like maths and english but a couple of hours in a home economics class wouldn't go amiss!!).
Maybe that way i wouldn't come across so many morons!
 
I think it should be law that they all have a permanent form of identification but I also firmly believe it should be up to the owner whether that's a microchip or a tatoo.

Would YOU want a microchip (foreign body) inserted in the back of your neck???? If it's not good enough for me, it's not good enough for my pets.

Are you neutered? What about your rabbits?
 
Are you neutered? What about your rabbits?

I have to say, i agree with you stator.

So if we're onto the argument of a foreign body being put into your pet and this not being 'right' what about these points:

-How many of you would take a blood transfusion if you were dying?
-How many of you vaccinate your pets (and yourselves for that matter)?
-How many of you have had broken bones repaired with metal pins/plates?
-How many of you have had an organ donation?

I could go on.
The point is, a lot of modern medicine involves putting 'foreign' objects/materials/drugs into the body - it doesn't make them wrong.
I'm sure that everybody on this forum has had something injected or placed into them that has helped to keep them alive.

So implanting a tiny object into the back of our pets neck's to help us to be re-united with them should they ever go missing or get stolen is, in my ponion, a completely acceptable 'foreign' body.
Most pets don't bat an eyelid at the injection.

Quite frankly, i'd prefer the pain of that needle than the pain of a tatoo.
 
Mine aren't, never really thought of it tbh :oops:

The horses and cats are chipped, although we have had so much hassle with one of our cats costing 1000s because of a chip and even now it still plays her up :(

My dogs tattood although he had it before we got him :)
 
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