Community Chat

[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.

[faeriemoon]

Ok; DD is home for a short vacation so I was able to ask her. Home Again is the most popular and largest company for microchipping. It costs around $17 per year after the initial insertion of the microchip. She said not to assume that the shelter did not do as they said, because there are several microchipping companies and your vet may not have had the scanner to read your animal. She also said it is possible to have your kitties x-rayed to see if they indeed have a microchip in them.

[lolakimono]

On 8/15/2014 faeriemoon said: Home Again is the most popular and largest company for microchipping. It costs around $17 per year after the initial insertion of the microchip. She said not to assume that the shelter did not do as they said, because there are several microchipping companies and your vet may not have had the scanner to read your animal. She also said it is possible to have your kitties x-rayed to see if they indeed have a microchip in them.

Thanks for the info!

The company is Home Again. I wonder why they wouldn't use the most popular if that's what the vets have. Maybe the Humane Society and ASCPA have something different.

[Kachina624]

On 8/15/2014 ktlynam said:

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."

I took a rescued Sheltie to the vet for microchipping yesterday and watched the vet check it afterwards. Sometimes the chips "migrate" so they check the whole back and neck area.

[MaggieToo]

Should I contact the rescue to report this?

Absolutely!

[~moxie~]

I have never had to pay a fee for a rescue the only charges I paid was if they needed to be fixed and the micrship. All of them had already had their shots from a vet in my town. She volunteered her services because most of the people will use her as their vet. Is this rescue group even licensed? The sound shady to me.

[lolakimono]

On 8/15/2014 ~moxie~ said: I have never had to pay a fee for a rescue the only charges I paid was if they needed to be fixed and the micrship. All of them had already had their shots from a vet in my town. She volunteered her services because most of the people will use her as their vet. Is this rescue group even licensed? The sound shady to me.

I have adopted four felines from rescues. Two (Maine Coon sisters) were $50 apiece, which included their shots and a voucher for free spaying. I adopted these at 8 weeks, so I had to wait a bit before they could be spayed. That was 16 years ago. They had four vets in their rescue network, and the voucher was for one of those vets.

These two, from January, came from two different rescues in two different states. They are just domestic short hairs, and they weren't itty bitty kitties. She was about two years old and he was a "teenage" kitten. Both groups charged $100+, which included their shots and spaying/neutering. I don't live in the area, so it would be about an hour to use any vets that they use.

The only time I have seen a rescue or humane society reduce a fee is when they have too many (kitten season) where they might do a BOGO or offer a free senior pet.

[hckynut]

On 8/15/2014 lolakimono said:

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.

Hi lolakimono,

I am slow to condemn any Rescue Organization. Some times it might just be a lack of communication between the volunteer members and those setting up the appointments etc. For me I learned a lot more about these different organization after working with a "No Kill Shelter" for several years that helped us adopt out the many litters of kittens we raised after moved to our present home.

We live by a state highway and it seems that many like to dispose of their cats somewhere close to us. Cats have a way of knowing where the good cat people live and that is how we have had so many litters to raise and adopt, and also why our group went from 6 indoor only when we moved here, to up to 13 of them at one point.

My wife works with a Boxer Rescue and it is run by people that know how to keep an organization running smoothly. It takes many hours for all involved, but there are very few mistakes made when it comes to spay/neuter/chip or just plain a vet visit. Many times one member drops the dog at the vet an another member picks him up.

For me I think it is essential to contact the organization and see if there was a mix up somehow with the kitten you adopted. I am always one that speaks up if something happens that shouldn't, but it an animal or any other type of business. The ones running or owning these places may not know there is a problem if someone does not speak up.

Thank you for saving 2 of these precious kittens. If only everyone would get their pets via rescue and not from breeders.

[lolakimono]

John and others,

This is my lady cat, Aubrey. This is her expression when I told her she may have been chipped twice.

You can see her special polydactyl paws.

[occasionalrain]

I think you should call and ask what company they use for microchipping and what you should have received, paper work, collar tag? because that could be the answer. If they use Home Again then you should explain that no chip was found in the cat. Is it possible that the abscess was caused by the microchipping and that it resulted in the chip coming out?