Cat microchip

beautyqueen

Hi all

Does anyone know what the likelihood of a microchip being lost from a cat that has been knocked down?

A cat similar looking to mine was knocked down but it was scanned for a microchip and they couldn't find it, and couldn't find a collar.

I'm going out of my mind with worry

anniehoo

Chips have been known to "migrate" so it's important that anyone who is scanning does a full body sweep, including "arm pit" area and not just the nape of the neck.

It's not that common though, but if I had lost a pet I'd hope a full body scan was done.It takes one minute longer to do this so I hope this becomes common practice. You're relying on the experience and knowledge of the person doing this though.

beautyqueen

anniehoo wrote: »

Chips have been known to "migrate" so it's important that anyone who is scanning does a full body sweep, including "arm pit" area and not just the nape of the neck.

It's not that common though, but if I had lost a pet I'd hope a full body scan was done.It takes one minute longer to do this so I hope this becomes common practice. You're relying on the experience and knowledge of the person doing this though.

Thanks for your reply. Yes they said they scanned every part of the body, although this was the next morning and the poor thing was very squished at that stage. I had gone to look at it the night before but couldn't recognise if it was mine or not. I wondered if the chip could actually leave the body? Although neighbours said they saw my cat after that one had been knocked down as their cat is friendly with my chap and they got a fright.
I was convinced it wasnt him but it's been nearly 3 weeks now and I'm starting to give up hope

Irish Stones

beautyqueen wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. Yes they said they scanned every part of the body, although this was the next morning and the poor thing was very squished at that stage.

Microchips can be damaged by events.
A microchip is a very small glass vial with a tiny simple electronic device inside.
This device is passive, that means it hasn't a battery inside, it's interrogated by the scanner which, while sweeping the area, is emitting a very low power radio transmission. This radio emission activate the tiny electronic device which wakes up and respond with its name, the string of numbers and letters unique to every device.
This said, it's easy to understand that a heavy damage done to an animal body could damage the vial or the device as well, so the scanner won't find anything.

I'm really sorry for your cat