Avid microchip problem

[Veronica]

Has this ever happened to anyone else?

I was reading a thread on here today about lost pets and remembered that I ran across Bella's microchip certificate the other day. I did a google search and found a few places where you could put in the chip number (which is on her certificate) and see where it's registered.

Every place that I've found says that it's an unregistered chip! I sent in the paperwork and the payment to have the chip registered in 2009 when it was put in. I know it's a two part process - pay the vet to put it in and register the chip with the company. I did both, but Avid dropped the ball.

All these years I thought she was protected and her chip isn't linked to my information at all. Of course I don't have a cancelled check or anything after this time, so I can't prove that I sent payment. I guess my only recourse will be to re-register her chip.

I'll call the company Monday and see what they say.

[AZPops]

I save all correspondence / receipts in a folder within in my email. This way I always have a copy should I need to prove payment, etc..

Pops

[swift1972]

YOu can register any chip thru Home Again and I believe it is $14.99. Its a fantastic service, They send out the lost pet alerts, covers about $3000 for any accidents or vet trouble your pet gets into if it is lost, and free phone calls to the ASPCA poison hot line ($65 per phone call). Its worth every penny 🙂 LVT 17 years

[CA_POPPY]

On our NBC local news tonight there was a story about a chihuahua turned in to a rescue. He was scanned and they found an unregistered chip. For some reason they kept scanning and found a SECOND chip, which had the owner's info. The chi had been missing for two years and he was returned to that family. For some reason, I can't find the story online, but it shows the value of having a chip implanted if you're not sure.

[dturm]

CA POPPY wrote:
I've heard of dogs that had more than one microchip, from different companies. Apparently, that is not a problem.

I just finished up this morning with my client who is going to Greece. I put the ISO 15 digit (I think) euro chip previously (available thru AVID but others have them too). If she had had a non-Euro approved chip, we would have implanted another.

This whole process was a pain for us and the client. When she is in Greece, she's going to get a passport from them so she won't have to go through this again.

Since AVID doesn't share their data base online, I'm going to voice my displeasure with their policy (not sure it will do any good :))

Doug, DVM

[CA_POPPY]

I've heard of dogs that had more than one microchip, from different companies. Apparently, that is not a problem.

[Dashonthedash]

I'm not that familiar with PetLink, since this is my first experience with them. I do like Home Again's Lost Dogs alerts, and I signed up to get alerts for lost dogs in my area. One time, there was a Shepherd from just around a corner that I knew. I wasn't the one who found him, but I was able to keep an eye out.

I just called AVID, and they do have Lily's registration. They don't link their database to the internet, so the numbers will not show up on other websites.

[Wanderlost]

Gary, Spot's chip is with PetLink, and Alex with Avid. I linked his with PetLink, since they have a far better online presence than Avid.

[Dashonthedash]

Both Dash and Lily were registered with Avid, as were my earlier dogs. When I adopted Molly, she was already chipped and registered with Home Again, and the transfer was free, so I kept it. Recently, I had Shadow chipped by my vet. He uses a third chip registry, PetLink, and the registration was part of his fee, so now I have 3 dogs, all registered with different companies. Of course, I could register all 3 of them, for extra fees, at one of the 3, if I could figure out which one. Good luck with Bella's chip.

I used the AAHA site to check on the 3 dogs. They had Shadow and Molly there, but not Lily (the Avid dog). Curiously, Avid is the one registry that does not let you log on and manage the dog's profile (as well as your own). That's odd because I got brass ID tags from them years ago for both Dash and Lily. I think the problem is with their database.

[Veronica]

I'll give Avid a call and see if it's registered through them. I got the same as otis-agnes when I tried the AAHA site, but tried another that specifically said it was an unregistered chip. 😞 Hopefully Avid has my info.

[otis-agnes]

I just tried the AAHA/AKC website with Penny's chip #. It says "No information found. This is most likely a chip from AVID", which it is. Agnes

[CA_POPPY]

I once checked the chip # of s relative's dog online (on a hunch) and it showed purchased but not registered. No problem, I went online and filled in all the info for them. I think it wanted me to use a CC and pay a small fee. However, if the owner has had other pets reg with the same chip company, you just fill in the chip # of a different registered pet and there was no fee and it linked them all together. Very cool.

[dturm]

We've got the newer AVID scanner (probably 3-5 years old) and it will scan the European chips. We've only gotten a few "chip present" without it reading the number, so that is pretty rare - still a problem

[raindove]

I have a small scanner from AVID and it reads both AVID and Home Again Chips. The numbers are in different sequences, so you know which it is.

Then we got the free scanner from Banfield - that reads AVID, Home Again and Banfield chips - all 3.

I always used AVID chips, as they offered special pricing to shelters/rescues. But I have always offered to check existing chips in dogs who people brought along when they came to adopt -- and I've always offered free scanning if someone finds a dog.

That has given me an opportunity to find the other types of microchips and know for sure that the scanners do read them all.

They won't read the European chips, but that's not really an issue for me, in this area.

[Pawz4me]

dturm wrote:
I did a search on AAHA/AKC universal lookup tool and found Jill's chip to be unregistered too.

A major problem here is that each company has a proprietary computer file and there was no single data base. AAHA and AKC has attempted to make a centralized data base to help with lost animals, but obviously there are some flaws in the system.

That was my initial thought when I read the original post -- problem with the online database, not with the registration with the chip company.

In addition to the universal database issue, my vet told me several years ago that there's no universal scanner that will read all chips. He said that any scanner would (or should) detect the presence of a chip, but might not be able to read the number. So in order to read the numbers they needed a scanner for AVID, a scanner for Home Again, etc. I don't know if that's changed since then. One would hope so.