Pet Microchipping in Woodside, NY

• What is physically implanted

  A chip about the size of a grain of rice, placed under the skin between the shoulder blades with a needle, in a procedure that takes only seconds and needs no sedation for the great majority of animals regardless of species or temperament. It has no battery and no moving parts of any kind, and it is designed to remain functional and unmoved in that same spot for the rest of the animal's life.

• What it is not: a GPS tracker

  A microchip cannot be located on a map, does not transmit any kind of signal, and will not tell you where your animal currently is at this moment, however much the name might suggest otherwise to someone unfamiliar with it. If you want real-time location tracking, that is a separate battery-powered collar device entirely, and a microchip does not replace or duplicate that function in any way.

• What the chip actually contains

  A single unique identification number, and genuinely nothing else beyond that. It carries no medical history, no owner details and no contact information directly on the chip itself — all of that lives in the separate database registration linked to the number, which is exactly why registering it properly matters just as much as implanting it, if not more, however quick and painless the implanting itself happens to be.

• How it is read

  A handheld scanner passed slowly over the area between the shoulder blades detects the chip and displays its unique number on screen, a process that takes only a few seconds and causes no discomfort to the animal at all. Every shelter, animal control department and veterinary practice we know of in the area carries a scanner capable of reading the standard microchip format used here.

• Why we check the chip after implanting it

  Immediately after implanting, we scan the animal ourselves to confirm the chip is reading correctly and has not shifted or migrated from where it was originally placed, because a chip that cannot actually be found by a scanner protects nothing at all, regardless of how correctly it was registered on paper beforehand. It takes only a few seconds and it is never treated as an optional extra step.

• The first thing a shelter or officer does

  A found animal brought to a shelter, an animal control officer or any veterinary practice is scanned between the shoulder blades as a matter of routine, usually before almost anything else happens, because a readable chip changes the entire next step from a lengthy stray intake process into a comparatively simple phone call. That single scan is often the whole difference between hours and days.

• A resolving number leads to a direct call

  If the number matches a current, accurate registration, the database or the person who found the animal can usually reach the registered owner directly, often within the same day rather than after a delay, rather than the animal entering a shelter's standard holding period while a match is slowly worked out. Most reunions of this kind genuinely happen within hours, not days.

• A chip with no current record still delays things

  If the number does not resolve to a working contact, because the record was never actually completed or was left to go outdated over time, the animal is effectively treated as unidentified even though it is, technically, microchipped, and enters the very same holding process as an animal with no chip whatsoever. This is precisely the scenario keeping the registration current is meant to prevent.

• We scan any animal brought to us, registered here or not

  Found animals are scanned as a standard part of simply being brought in through our door, entirely at no charge, whether or not the microchip happens to be registered to our own records here. If we can identify an owner through that scan, we will make the call ourselves rather than just informing you a chip was found and leaving the rest to you.

• Why we recommend it alongside, not instead of, a collar and tag

  A collar and a visible tag get an animal home faster in the short term, simply because anyone at all can read a printed tag without needing a scanner of any kind. A microchip is the permanent backup for the day a collar is lost or slips off, which happens more often than most owners honestly expect, particularly with cats.

This is general information, not veterinary advice. This page describes a service. It is general information and it is not veterinary advice, a diagnosis or a treatment plan for any particular animal, because no page can examine your pet. If your animal is unwell, injured or behaving unusually, speak to a licensed veterinarian who can actually see it. In an emergency contact your own veterinarian or a 24-hour emergency animal hospital immediately.