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Horrible experience calling the vet - "microchip not properly registered"

  • 25-01-2021 12:48pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 26


    My family's dog has been missing for a few days now.


    On Saturday evening a dog was found in a nearby area. The Facebook page for the Vet's clinic in the area put up a post that said


    "Dog found. Please contact us and we will notify the finder"


    which I thought was a bit unusual, as I assumed the vets normally would take in the dog to scan it for a microchip.


    The clinic was closed, so we called the emergency number which they have online. The phone was answered with "Hello?" and I asked if this was indeed the emergency number for the vet, and I got a super hostile response: "Whats the problem??" and she eventually said that she works all week and this is her time off. (Rant: Don't put your emergency number up online if you can't answer with any decency, and intend to treat people with an arrogant, dismissive, hostile attitude)



    Anyway, she said that the family for the dog was found. I asked if it was chipped, and she hesitated for a full two seconds, then gave a very unconvincing "yes". Then I stayed silent, and after a couple of more seconds she added - "but the chip wasnt registered properly" - does anyone have any idea if thats possible and what it means?


    Then she went on to say that she wasnt there and that her staff members had handled it. "the neighbour of the owner collected the dog and gave it to the owner, and thats it, its done."


    I thought that was also strange, why would the owner of the dog not collect the dog themselves?


    To be fair, I'm not 1000% sure that it is our dog, but it's hard to rule it out too, it would be good to know for sure.


    Based on the conversation I'm fairly certain the dog wasnt scanned for a chip and was just handed to the person who called and said it was theirs.


    Does it seem a bit strange to anyone else? Is it possible that a chip can be "not registered properly" or expire somehow?


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 531 ✭✭✭Springwell


    Yes, we see it all the time particularly with dogs from what I can only assume are puppy mills. Microchips not registered or no info on the system


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 9,725 Mod ✭✭✭✭DBB


    I'd say a sizeable proportion of microchips are not registered properly. For instance, many are still registered to the breeder, or they are still registered to a previous owner, or most commonly in my experience, not registered at all.
    Is your dog's chip properly registered op? You can check by contacting the microchip company. Indeed, if your dog goes missing, it is of paramount importance that the microchip company to which your dog is registered is contacted ASAP so that they can flag the dog as missing/stolen in their system.
    Once they have it flagged, if that microchip number is subsequently entered into the system by a vet, pound or rescue, it sets off a major alert to the microchip company, because it means that somebody has found the dog, scanned it, and input the chip number. In the majority of cases, the chip company knows which vet, pound or rescue has input that chip number, because they all have a user ID.
    If your dog is chipped, and is indeed the dog that was handed into the vet, and if the vet scanned the dog and subsequently input the number into the database, this is the only way the vet/vet staff could have found out that the chip is incorrectly registered.
    I would say that it is vanishingly unlikely that a vet would not bother scanning the dog, then pretend they had, and pretend they had found it not properly registered, before handing the dog to somebody who didn't own it (or an agent of a person who doesn't own it). This is the only scenario that I can think of to which your story would fit... it just seems tremendously unlikely.
    Anyway, to summarise: Your first port of call, if you haven't already, is to contact the microchip company to which your dog is presumably registered, (a) to check they have your correct contact details, (b) to flag that the dog is missing/stolen, and and (c) to get them to check if your dog's chip number has been input into the system.


  • Registered Users Posts: 728 ✭✭✭bertiebomber


    A lot of new owners think if they are micro chipped all is well they are not always aware that they need to register that number to themselves its more ignorance than mis adventure. My dog had a chip but nothing on it except her dam & sire and ridiculous name - I had to re register my ownership of her and its cost 20 euro on Fido at the time now if she is lost my telephone number & the number of my best friend are on her micro chip file. So she will be found but hardly likely to be lost as she lives by the aga! Had a cruel start in the cold now heat is her favorite thing after food.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Regional North West Moderators Posts: 6,924 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cherry Blossom


    Do some microchips carry details of the dogs ancestry? I find that a bit peculiar as it’s somewhat irrelevant to who owns the dog. Mine certainly doesn’t have that information and I wasn’t asked for it. Maybe if it’s an IKC chip. Mine is animark.


  • Registered Users Posts: 728 ✭✭✭bertiebomber


    It must have been IKC chip she had as it did have her DOB on it and her 'Posh Name'


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  • Registered Users Posts: 26 social.lite


    Thanks for all the info, I'll double check what the craic is with the chip tomorrow.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,182 ✭✭✭cullenswood


    How would one find out what company the cup is registered to?

    I have a rescue dog and want to make sure it is properly updated


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,008 ✭✭✭✭tk123


    How would one find out what company the cup is registered to?

    I have a rescue dog and want to make sure it is properly updated

    Get it scanned at your vets.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    tk123 wrote: »
    Get it scanned at your vets.

    You may need to get the rescue you adopted from to re-register the chip on your behalf.

    Animark refused to re-register my dog's chip on my word alone, (they said I could have stolen the dog). The rescue had to arrange the re-registration.


  • Registered Users Posts: 601 ✭✭✭zedhead


    You may need to get the rescue you adopted from to re-register the chip on your behalf.

    Animark refused to re-register my dog's chip on my word alone, (they said I could have stolen the dog). The rescue had to arrange the re-registration.

    Yeh, the rescue we got our little guy from reregistered the chip for us. It took a while to do and I had to chase them a few times. Ours is a Animark chip too.


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  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 9,725 Mod ✭✭✭✭DBB


    None of the microchip databases will change ownership based on a call from the new owner. That would defeat the purpose!
    They will always contact the last registered owner, or the rescue where the dog came from. The microchip companies have a long-standing relationship of trust with the rescue groups to vouch that the new person is bone fide :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 809 ✭✭✭omicron


    The clinic was closed, so we called the emergency number which they have online. The phone was answered with "Hello?" and I asked if this was indeed the emergency number for the vet, and I got a super hostile response: "Whats the problem??" and she eventually said that she works all week and this is her time off. (Rant: Don't put your emergency number up online if you can't answer with any decency, and intend to treat people with an arrogant, dismissive, hostile attitude)



    ?

    If you call a number for emergencies out of hours with a query that isn't an emergency you could understand why someone wouldn't be too happy about it.

    From experience roughly 2 out of every 3 out of hours vet calls are completely random queries that are not emergencies and couldn't possibly be considered emergencies by anyone and it gets fairly wearing after a while.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Regional North West Moderators Posts: 6,924 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cherry Blossom


    Did you ever find your dog op?


  • Registered Users Posts: 26 social.lite


    No luck finding the dog yet. There was a dog found in the UK, looks similar but again its hard to tell. The chip was cut out of that dog. We contacted a couple of vets in the area it was found to see if we can get a couple of more pictures of it.

    Regarding the vet being annoyed by out of hours calls, I totally understand the frustration of people ringing with stupid questions out of hours. But I would consider a lost being found an acceptable reason to ring in the out of hours. If its such a burden to take these calls, that you find the need to be hostile and rude over the phone, just take down the phone number and don't offer an emergency service.


    We got in touch with the microchip company (Fido) and they were quite helpful


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,008 ✭✭✭✭tk123


    If its such a burden to take these calls, that you find the need to be hostile and rude over the phone, just take down the phone number and don't offer an emergency service.

    If you're in Dublin your vet has probably found themselves having to handle their out of hours service themselves as UCD have stopped due to the pandemic.. I know my vet's are working in teams one week on, one week off, a third of their staff have been cocooning almost a year now and they're stretched thinly as it is. I don't know what the situation is outside of Dublin. I cut my vets some slack here when I'm waiting for our appointments etc as I've been that (actual) emergency and have had to be slotted in amongst other appointments, a pet may have had to be PTS and thrown everything off etc etc. I'm the same contacting them at all unless I have an actual emergency because I've heard first hand the crap they get off customers..

    TBH - a horrible experience for me would be calling and finding out my dog is dead.. not that the dog was returned to it's owners.


  • Registered Users Posts: 531 ✭✭✭Springwell


    UCD and the Pet Emergency Hospital at Belfield are two separate entities - PEH rent space from UCD and there is some staff cross over but very little. PEH is still providing out of hours cover


  • Registered Users Posts: 809 ✭✭✭omicron



    Regarding the vet being annoyed by out of hours calls, I totally understand the frustration of people ringing with stupid questions out of hours. But I would consider a lost being found an acceptable reason to ring in the out of hours. If its such a burden to take these calls, that you find the need to be hostile and rude over the phone, just take down the phone number and don't offer an emergency service.

    Lost and found isn't an emergency, the vet covering emergencies isn't even likely to be up to speed on a lost and found situation.

    Vet practices do out of hours for 2 reasons - obviously to provide a service for clients with genuinely sick dogs who need to be seen, and also it's a legal requirement that all veterinary practices must make provision for emergency cover.

    Everyone thinks their one little phone call that's not an emergency isn't a big deal but given most practices only have a few vets and the vet on call works the day before and after a night on call, it's easy to understand how you can get an irate response on the phone to a vet out of hours.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,008 ✭✭✭✭tk123


    Springwell wrote: »
    UCD and the Pet Emergency Hospital at Belfield are two separate entities - PEH rent space from UCD and there is some staff cross over but very little. PEH is still providing out of hours cover

    Oh maybe what I read on a local vet’s FB was wrong then - they said it was closed due to covid - possibly it was just xmas. I know my own vet was on the rotation because I was waiting an hour for our appointment the other week as they had 3 emergencies in.


  • Registered Users Posts: 809 ✭✭✭omicron


    tk123 wrote: »
    Oh maybe what I read on a local vet’s FB was wrong then - they said it was closed due to covid - possibly it was just xmas. I know my own vet was on the rotation because I was waiting an hour for our appointment the other week as they had 3 emergencies in.

    They had an outbreak of Covid in the PEH Christmas week and we're unable to provide enough staff as most had been close contacts so they were closed until the first week of January.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,205 ✭✭✭cruizer101


    On the microchip not being properly registered I would say there is a lot of dogs out there with this being the case partly as a result of the recent changes in the law about it.
    Our dog was registered when we got him with Animal Guard (PetNET) and registration was updated to us. Then a while later I checked up on it out of curiosity and he wasn't registered anymore as the database he was registered to was shutdown as I think it was too much work for them to comply with the new rules.
    So the dog was no longer registered anywhere and we had to get the registration updated.
    There was no notification of this I just found it by chance.


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