Community Chat

[lolakimono]

This is a serious post.

I adopted two rescue kitties in January. One group charges $125 per kitty, which includes the spay/neuter, vaccinations, and microchipping. When I went to pick up the boy kitty, he had not been microchipped yet, so they charged me $100.

The other kitty was $100. She was already spayed and microchipped. She came to us with some health issues (like an abscess, which manifested 5 days after we got her) so I ended up spending an additional $300 on vet bills in the first week.

When I took both kitties for their annual shots and exam, I scheduled the boy kitty to be microchipped. While I was there, I had my vet scan the girl kitty to make sure that she had been registered under my name. The cat woman had taken her to be microchipped the day I picked her up, and she said the abscess might have been a reaction to the microchipping. Well, imagine my surprise when they scanned the girl kitty and ... nothing happened! As it turns out, she was never microchipped. Had I not asked the vet to scan her, and something happened to her, I would never have known.

Should I contact the rescue to report this?

Do you think this is shady behavior, or do you think the cat woman delegated to someone else and thought that it was done before I came to pick kitty up?

I would like to think that they are just overworked, understaffed volunteers who have too many kitties to keep track of, but I don't want others to be bamboozled if they are knowingly adopting out animals in poor health and who haven't received all the services they claim to have provided.

[Elstongunn]

Yes, you should contact the rescue place and report it. They charged you for it, right? They need to microchip your kitty to make it right.

They could be understaffed, yes. But when a pet is microchipped, they usually scan it and check it right away to make sure it "took."

[lolakimono]

Ktlynam,

I have not done this myself, so I don't know how the process might vary...

When the vet did it, they gave us little yellow house tags with a serial number to attach to the collar. It lets the "finder" know right away that the pet is chipped, so they can find out contact information from the tag or take it to a vet to be scanned.

I'm surprised, seeing what the vet provided (paperwork AND tags) that these weren't provided if she had really been taken to be chipped.

[RedTop]

I also agree that you should contact the organization about this oversight, and give them the opportunity to correct their mistake.

[RainyDayGal]

I would definitely contact them and ask about it. How much is it for you to get the kitten microchipped at your vet's? Did you go ahead and get both kittens chipped?

[faeriemoon]

Microchipping is not as universal as people think. I believe there are two major microchipping companies and most vets and shelters have the scanners for both. If they were microchipped using a less popular (and probably cheaper) product/company, it's possible the scanner the vet used didn't pick up the signal. YOu should ask the shelter which system they use.

[lolakimono]

On 8/15/2014 RedConvertibleGirl said:

I would definitely contact them and ask about it. How much is it for you to get the kitten microchipped at your vet's? Did you go ahead and get both kittens chipped?

I got both done.

It was $17.99 per kitty to enroll in the online locator registration and $61.00 per kitty to place the chip. They used a small needle to numb the site and then the big one to inject the chip.

[lolakimono]

On 8/15/2014 faeriemoon said: Microchipping is not as universal as people think. I believe there are two major microchipping companies and most vets and shelters have the scanners for both. If they were microchipped using a less popular (and probably cheaper) product/company, it's possible the scanner the vet used didn't pick up the signal. YOu should ask the shelter which system they use.

Interesting. This is why I came here first instead of sending the rescue a nastygram.

Does the less popular/cheaper method provide some "evidence" that animals were chipped? A tag, or some sort of registration form like I got?

[RainyDayGal]

You should have received the paperwork that registered them if they were chipped. Sometimes you also receive a little tag with a number to put on their collars saying they are chipped.

You can take them to another vet's office or animal shelter and ask them to do a scan and see if they can pick up the chip.

[faeriemoon]

On 8/15/2014 lolakimono said:

On 8/15/2014 faeriemoon said: Microchipping is not as universal as people think. I believe there are two major microchipping companies and most vets and shelters have the scanners for both. If they were microchipped using a less popular (and probably cheaper) product/company, it's possible the scanner the vet used didn't pick up the signal. YOu should ask the shelter which system they use.

Interesting. This is why I came here first instead of sending the rescue a nastygram.

Does the less popular/cheaper method provide some "evidence" that animals were chipped? A tag, or some sort of registration form like I got?

Not sure, lola. This info came from my best friend who is a vet. I'm going upstairs to ask my daughter (a fourth year vet student); be right back.