What is dog microchipping? Electronic pet identification system. What to look for when chipping

The veterinary center "Vetlekar" carries out microchipping of dogs, which is gaining popularity in Moscow. The microchip is implanted quickly, safely, without causing discomfort to the animal. The owner gets the opportunity to find a lost puppy or adult pet. This eliminates the risk of losing information, and identification is always error-free.

What is dog microchipping?

Chipping is a procedure for introducing a microchip, which is a tiny (the size of a grain of rice - 2.1 x 12 mm) sterile capsule made of biocompatible glass, which encloses a microcircuit and an induction coil. The chip contains a unique number (15-digit digital code), according to which the animal is identified.

As a result of microchipping, the dog’s data is entered into a unified register. In the future, this number can be used to determine who the owner of the animal is and where to go with it if it gets lost and someone finds it. In addition, the procedure allows you to prove, for example, in court, that the pet belongs to you (if it was stolen).

In the European Union, microchipping of pets has been mandatory since 2003. A microchip is a kind of electronic passport of a four-legged friend.

The price includes the chipping procedure, the cost of the microchip, checking the chip with a scanner before and after insertion, and entering chipping data into the database.

How much does it cost and how does microchipping of dogs work?

Nowadays, stray animals are a rather pressing problem, but the worst thing is that among them there are a huge number of former pets. Hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats go missing every year, and some of them never return home, or their journey on the streets drags on for an indefinite amount of time.

The loss of a dog often occurs due to the fault of the owner or a selfish attitude towards him. Inattention can occur during a walk, when the owner is distracted while talking with his interlocutor, and the dog is playing with his favorite toy, or the entrance to the yard is open, and the dog decides to frolic outside his property.

Usually a dog is identified by special signs and a collar, on which an engraved address and nickname (address book for dogs) are printed. Recently, one of the most popular and reliable methods of preventing loss or theft is microchipping a dog.

What is a microchip

A microchip is a special electronic capsule that is implanted into a dog’s body for further identification.

It's not just dogs that are microchipped these days. The device is quite miniature, so it can be used on both large animals and small birds and animals, for example, parrots. When a stray animal comes to the veterinary service, the first thing a specialist does is scan the microchip, which contains detailed information about its owner.

The microchip is made on the basis of an inert material, sodium-calcium silicate glass, which maintains its integrity throughout the entire period of operation. The chip is a unique development for animal identification; its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is activated directly upon contact with the scanner, that is, it completely lacks a power source.

Based on the technical characteristics, the microchip can work throughout the life of the animal. The device is implanted during a needle injection by a qualified technician. The chip is inserted under the skin at the back of the neck between the shoulder blades. The microchip contains an identification number, which is included in the national database of microchipped animals.

Does it hurt your dog during microchipping?

The chipping method is quite simple, painless and quick to use, which means it does not require anesthesia. Each dog is individual; just like humans, it can react differently to an injection. In one case, the pet won’t even move its ears, in another it may whine and twitch.

In any case, microchipping does not cause more pain than a regular preventive vaccination.

Is chipping dangerous?

Chipping is one of the most painless procedures in veterinary medicine. Complications when microchipping dogs are extremely rare, and if the procedure is performed by a professional, they are generally reduced to zero.

There are unverified sources that suggest an increased risk of cancer in microchipped dogs. However, the risk of such diseases is negligible and reduced to almost zero.

In any case, the animal owner needs to decide between a negligible risk and the loss of the animal.

How much does chipping cost?

Many veterinary clinics and centers adhere to a uniform pricing policy for microchipping - about $30. This price is related to the quality of materials and components that are exported from abroad.

In some cities and regions, there are charities that microchip pets at half the cost or completely free.

How data is entered into a microchip and how to change it

Information about the dog is entered into the international database of microchipped animals by the veterinarian who carries out the procedure. We recommend that you always check whether this information is entered into the database or not. After all, if the doctor did not do this, then the microchip will not be able to help in finding your dog.

If you change your place of residence or otherwise update your contact information, changes should also be made to the data linked to the microchip.

Information can be updated and changed online or by mail. However, this service is by no means free.

If a person buys a dog that has already been microchipped, then he must have access to the contacts of the previous owner to replace information about the owner in the database.

Is it necessary to microchip a dog?

At the moment, chipping is not a mandatory procedure, but the government has repeatedly taken the initiative to introduce similar bills. However, regardless of whether the owner is required by law to microchip the dog or not, remember that in all circumstances the responsibility for the dog lies with the owner.

Microchipping dogs can solve many problems and this will be discussed in this article. Animals had to endure everything at different times so that owners could distinguish them from other animals: branding with a hot iron, cuts and piercings of the ears, tattooing, ringing, scarring and coloring of fur...

Today you don’t need to torture your pet to give him a passport and thus take care of his safety. Experienced veterinarians advise owners to take a closer look at chipping technology.

Initially, chipping was used to mark expensive goods to prevent theft. But in 1989, Texas Instruments created chips that could be implanted under the skin of animals. To this day, their use is the most reliable way to identify a pet.

An electronic chip the size of a grain of rice is implanted into the area under the pet's withers. This medium contains detailed information about the animal, information about its health status and vaccinations, as well as the name, surname, address and telephone number of the person who brought the pet for microchipping.

The chip can be implanted at a large veterinary clinic. Moreover, the procedure lasts only a couple of minutes. The animal is given an injection, which, in addition to the liquid solution, contains the microchip itself, enclosed in a small bioglass capsule. After the procedure, the animal should not scratch or wash the injection site for two days. Therefore, if your pet is a fidget, it is better to put a special protective collar on it.

So in five minutes the dog will have his own electronic passport, which will be with him for the rest of his life. Along with the chip, the animal is assigned an electronic number of 15 digits, in which the code of the country and the clinic where this mini-operation took place is encrypted.

All information is entered into a single database of pets, and the owner is issued an identification card. Data from the chip and card is read in an instant using a special scanner.

Why do dogs need to be microchipped?

The card received with the chip is a legal document. By presenting it, you can prove that the animal belongs to you. Therefore, if your dog or cat was stolen or an illegal replacement was made, the court will consider your case only when you prove that it is your animal.

However, what is much more important, microchipping greatly simplifies the process of finding escaped pets. Most often, people who find a “lost” dog on the street bring it to the nursery. There, “nobody’s” pet is necessarily scanned to see if it has a chip, and if it does, the owner’s contact numbers are easily found in a single database.

By the way, you will not be able to travel with your pet if you do not undergo this procedure. Since May 26, 20003, only animals with electronic documents are allowed into the European Union

Chipping will help your dog

The chip does not harm the animal or cause discomfort. And the procedure itself is no more painful than a regular injection. A chip implanted under the skin will not be lost, and information will not be erased from it. Moreover, and very importantly, this “document” cannot be falsified, cut or changed.

Remember: microchipping dogs is still an opportunity to protect yourself from suffering. Many owners who have lost their pets in the past and, despite all the measures taken, were unable to find them, know how difficult it is to survive the loss of a four-legged friend.

And if earlier their animals had been equipped with electronic “passports,” they would have returned home safe and sound.

Price for chipping

How much does it cost to have dogs microchipped? The price for microchipping dogs in Moscow and St. Petersburg ranges from 600 to 2000 rubles. The cost depends on whether you will carry out the procedure in a specialized clinic or prefer. In other cities of Russia, the price of the service is usually 10-20% cheaper.

Reviews about chipping dogs

Review #1

I had both my girls microchipped. I decided that this is much more effective than. The chip lasts a lifetime and is better identified. It seems to me that if possible, then microchipping should be done. It’s not that expensive and it definitely won’t be superfluous.

The main thing is that after microchipping, you must go to animal-ID and check whether the data about you and your animal has been entered into the worldwide database. And check whether all the data is entered correctly so that there are no typos. If there is an error, it will be easiest for the person who entered the data to correct it.

Katya, Moscow

Review #2

Our veterinarian persuaded me to get microchipped because it was a painless procedure. And in fact, a tiny capsule was injected into my Busik’s withers with a large syringe, and he didn’t make a sound. A minute later everything was ready. They only told me not to wet the injection site for three days.

What led me to this measure is that I have a very freedom-loving dog. Likes to go on leave for a couple of days. And I'm always afraid of losing him. And now, if he ends up somewhere in a shelter, he will be returned to me. Still, sleep better.

Varvara, Rostov-on-Don

Review #3

I have been microchipping my dogs for a long time - this is a necessary condition for traveling abroad with them. And we constantly go to Europe both on vacation and to exhibitions. It’s even convenient: no one can replace the dog, and you can always determine its owner. And the base is common all over the world. And no harm to the dogs. I don't understand why many owners are still hesitant.

Mikhail, St. Petersburg

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Dog microchipping is the assignment of an ID to something electronically. Usually this process is done to protect against theft or loss. Initially, chipping was carried out on non-living objects, but on expensive products.

In 1989, Texas Instruments created a microchip for dogs. Later, these small schemes achieved vocation and many pet owners began to show their interest in them. Now the assignment of such marks to pets has replaced the more cruel methods of branding with a hot iron, cutting of ears, piercing with further installation of rings in the ears and nose, scarring of the skin and chemical dyeing of fur.

Let's take a look at how much it costs to chip a pet and what the essence of the process itself is.

Dog microchipping concept

Microchipping of pets involves subcutaneous implantation of a small digital chip in the area of ​​the dog's withers, which contains the following information:

1. About the dog:

• pet breed;
• nickname;
• date of birth;
• color;
• signs and more.

1. About the owner:
2. Full Name;
3. phone number;
4. location;
5. passport data;
6. email address and so on.

A microchip is an electronic identification that helps determine whose animal it is and where its owner is located. In addition to this list, a fifteen-digit code is encoded in the chip. It contains the code of the country that produced it, the marking of the pet and the veterinary hospital where the animal was microchipped.

Such an electronic setting is not overwritten or rewritten; it is programmed only 1 time.

All owners of such chipped dogs can themselves track the data that is recorded on the circuit. All information is located in the public Internet database located on the website animal-id.ru.

Why is it necessary?

Now chipping occurs only at the request of the owner and there are no Russian laws that everyone must have their pets chipped. But over the years, this technique is increasingly gaining popularity, and most animal owners use this procedure.

This is due to the following factors:

1. The costs of microchipping are minimal, but they allow you to create a digital passport for the animal for life. Such a certificate provides many advantages over other methods of dog recognition:

• the microcircuit cannot be lost, but the address tag attached to the collar can;
• Compared to a tag, the chip does not spread over time and does not become overgrown with hair

1. Information about the animal’s medical conditions can be encoded into the chip: information about allergic reactions, various surgical interventions and past illnesses. Any veterinarian will need such data when examining pets.
2. If the dog gets lost, it will most likely end up in a temporary detention kennel, many of which are equipped with chip reading technology. Therefore, you can find the owner and give him the pet safe and sound very quickly.
3. If the dog is stolen or kidnapped, the electronic microchip will identify the real owner. This is useful for those who breed animals and for whom this is their main occupation.
4. Microchipping your pets allows you to travel together with your devoted pets. The bottom line is that travel with animals into the territory of certain states, according to their laws, is allowed only after electronic identification. EU countries have been using such methods at the entry point with animals since 2003.

Video

Chipping process

Surgical intervention to install a microchip in dogs is carried out in almost every animal clinic. But it is better to carry out such operations in large veterinary medical institutions that have the proper documentation for microchipping pets.


The implantation of the microcircuit is done within two minutes and its content is similar to an injection. An injection with a chip, the size of a grain of rice, is injected into the dog's withers area under the skin (where the collar does not reach) or into the inside of the paw (for hairless animals).

Increasingly, veterinary clinics have begun to offer the service of microchipping pets. Not all owners know about microchipping animals, what it is and why it is necessary. Therefore, let's put everything on the shelves.

The chip is a tiny (a little more than a centimeter long and about 2 mm wide, that is, almost like a grain of rice) microcircuit, which is surrounded by glass that is not rejected by the body.

Each chip has its own identification code, which is purely individual (the same coincidence of numbers can only happen a hundred years later!). If the chips are original, that is, not underground, then there will be no two identical codes.

It is so small that it is extremely difficult to palpate after being implanted under the skin of an animal. However, when scanning with a special device, this small microcircuit is recognized, and the same identification code appears on the reader’s display.

This serial number can only be compared with your serial number in your passport. And this data is entered into a special database. Very soon a law will be passed that will oblige all owners of cats and dogs to have their pets microchipped. It is no longer possible to import animals into the EU countries that are not registered in the common database and that do not have an identification chip implanted under the skin.

There is only one function – “tag” and register the animal. Imagine your pet is lost. So what should we do? It's good to have a collar with an address tag. Then the animal can be returned to you. However, if it is not there, then what to do? And the chip is salvation. The person who finds it can take it to the clinic, where they will scan (an absolutely safe manipulation) the area where the chip will be implanted. 15 digits will appear on the scanner display, which are entered into a special database (unified not only for Russia). As a result, the name, surname and address of the owner will be displayed, to whom the pet will be returned.

Microchipping dogs and cats is a real salvation for owners of purebred pets. After all, there is a great risk that such a handsome pet could be stolen or appropriated, but implanting a chip under the skin will help prove that this pet is yours! In addition, if your mustache was caught by the trapping service, then by reading the identification code by scanning, your pet will be returned to its family. If there is no chip, then the animal will have only a week to live at best.

Microchipping dogs is a simple procedure, absolutely painless, and does not cause any complications in the animal.

The process is:

• The veterinarian takes the package with the chip. Be sure to compare what is written on the packaging and what appears on the device’s display when scanning the chip itself. These 15 digits must match exactly.
• The chip must be sterilized. Since the chip is protected by glass, there is no need to worry that an important part will be damaged by alcohol or other disinfectant.
• Next, the veterinarian inserts the chip under the skin using a syringe. One injection site! This is in the area of ​​the withers or shoulder blades. Not in the thigh, not in the neck! After implantation, the place where the contents of the syringe were injected must be scanned. If everything was correct, the numbers will immediately appear on the scanner display.
• Next, the veterinarian fills out special documents and enters you into a single database. A note is made in the animal's passport and a unique identification code is recorded.

Microchipping of cats follows the same scheme as for dogs. There are no special differences. A chip is implanted into almost all animals (and even birds). It could be horses, hamsters, parrots, or anyone.

You shouldn’t be surprised by this, because animals can be purebred, used for breeding and participate in international exhibitions (and as mentioned earlier, it is prohibited for an unchipped animal to travel to any EU country). Even if you are not going to travel, and your pet is far from pure blood, this is not a reason not to resort to microchipping. Do not forget that the cat can run away into the street or get lost (for example, you went to nature or to visit the village). Then anyone who finds it will be able to return your pet to you only by contacting the veterinary clinic with a request to scan the chip.

Or your pet could have been stolen. And if you see it on someone, you can easily prove that this is your animal, since you will have all the relevant certificates and documents (including a passport for the animal itself), which will have a mark with an identification code. This is an ironclad argument, and no one can challenge it. The pet will rightfully return to you. Even if you don't know where your cat is, you can send information to veterinary clinics asking them to scan all similar animals. And if there is a match with your code, call you. Sooner or later, the kidnappers of your cat will have to turn to veterinarians for help.

Features of chipping in Russia

No matter how simple and painless the manipulation of implanting a chip under the skin is, there are some contraindications.

Animals that are sick cannot be microchipped.

Of course, the animal’s immune system is already working hard, trying to cope with pathogens. Even though the microcircuit is surrounded by glass that is not rejected by the body, it is not worth the risk. Nobody needs inflammation.

You cannot administer 2 chips to one pet.

Inside the chip there are no batteries, wires or complex “bells and whistles” that can disable this little “identifier”. Therefore, the chip cannot break! Simply put, there is nothing to fail there. Before inserting a chip, the veterinarian must ensure that the cat or dog has not previously been microchipped.

Little is required from owners: make sure that the pet does not scratch the injection site. And you can’t get it wet, otherwise inflammation may develop.

Where and how can this operation be performed?

Now we’ll talk about where and how this operation can be performed. Microchipping of cats and dogs (as well as other animals) is carried out by veterinarians in clinics. You should not trust any dubious organizations that do not have quality certificates or relevant documents for the chip. Don't risk your pet's health.

Find out in advance whether the clinic you choose can perform microchipping. Read reviews about the staff working there. In particular, in St. Petersburg we recommend this clinic http://zoochempion.ru/chipirovanie-sobak-i-koshek/. You can find out even more information on the clinic's website.

Chipping price

Until Russia has adopted a law on the mandatory implantation of a chip in animals, the price of microchipping is relatively low. Once this happens, the cost will jump significantly. Much depends on the chip manufacturer and the status of the clinic. But it is extremely rare that the price of chipping exceeds a thousand rubles (usually it varies from 500 to 900 rubles)

Still have questions? You can ask them to our site's in-house veterinarian in the comment box below, who will respond to them as soon as possible.