{"id":2684,"date":"2020-10-26T17:39:32","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T17:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.humanepa.org\/?p=2684"},"modified":"2020-10-26T17:47:14","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T17:47:14","slug":"healthy-pets-initiative-staying-healthy-and-safe-is-more-than-just-vaccinations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.humanepa.org\/?p=2684","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Pets Initiative – Staying Healthy and Safe is More Than Just Vaccinations"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Suzanne D’Alonzo, Community Outreach Programs Manager<\/em><\/h5>\n

At your last regular doctor\u2019s visit for a check-up, were you asked if you exercise? \u00a0Smoke?\u00a0 Even if you wear a helmet while you bike?\u00a0 If your doctor is looking to help you stay in top working order, sure, they see what childhood diseases you might have been vaccinated against, but they also focus on some of the other things that keep you healthy.\u00a0 Much of good medical care is about prevention.<\/p>\n

The Drive-in Vaccination Clinics of our Healthy Pets Initiative offer important vaccinations to pets in our community that otherwise might not have access to them.\u00a0 That\u2019s great, because pets who avoid illness from disease have a better chance of a long, healthy life.<\/p>\n

Yet these Drive-in Vaccination Clinics also focus on prevention, much like your doctor\u2019s visit.\u00a0 We offer microchips.\u00a0 Microchips can be the ticket home for lost pets, and that\u2019s as valuable as vaccination!<\/p>\n

Microchips are about the size and shape of a grain of rice, can go in a pet as tiny as a kitten, and have no ill-effects.\u00a0\u00a0 A pet who gets chipped will have that chip last their lifetime.\"\"<\/p>\n

Bear with an oversimplification:\u00a0 if you think about how a barcode on, say, a box of cereal works, it\u2019s really just ink on paper.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t \u201cdo\u201d anything, but a scanner can read and \u201ctranslate\u201d that zebra pattern into information at check out.\u00a0 Each product bar code pattern is different, and each has specific info that goes with it.\u00a0 That\u2019s how the cash register ends up translating \u201czebra stripes\u201d to \u201cbox of Cheerios, $1.99.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bear with a rough comparison:\u00a0 a microchip that has been implanted in a pet works much like the barcode on a cereal box in the sense that it\u2019s not \u201cdoing\u201d anything until it\u2019s scanned, and scanning holds the key to more information.<\/p>\n

Each chip has a unique identification number connected to it.\u00a0 That number pops up when a lost pet is scanned with a microchip scanner. \u00a0A shelter, rescue, veterinarian\u2019s office, or the finder of a pet that has taken the pet to be scanned at one of these locations is able to easily and quickly figure out which brand of chip it is, and call that company.\u00a0 The chip company will share what\u2019s been registered in their database for that number- pet\u2019s name, pet owner\u2019s name, phone numbers for the owner, and emergency contact information.\u00a0 The owner gets contacted and if all goes well, the pet is back home in a very short time!<\/p>\n

Those of us in animal sheltering regularly hear cat and dog owners say their pets don\u2019t need ID.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHe never goes out.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cShe always comes when called.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cHe wears a collar when we\u2019re outside.\u201d\u00a0 But accidents happen.\u00a0 A door gets left open by visitors.\u00a0 Someone trips on a walk, dropping the leash. \u00a0A collar is just loose enough when a truck rumbles by.\u00a0 A tree takes out a fence.\u00a0 A meter reader doesn\u2019t close the gate.\u00a0 Even serious emergencies happen- car accidents with pets in the car, EMT crews helping relatives, household fires, rising streams- and pets are often separated from owners in the chaos.\u00a0 \u00a0Microchipping simply lets us hope for the best and plan for the worst, doing the best to keep pets in the homes that love them.<\/p>\n

At our Drive-in Clinics, we can implant a chip quickly- it\u2019s a placed under the scruff of the neck, where there aren\u2019t a lot of nerve endings, with a special tool that works like a needle and syringe that would give a vaccine.\u00a0 And it takes the same time that getting a shot takes!\u00a0 So it\u2019s fast, is only a quick \u201couch,\u201d and the chip works immediately.\u00a0 Our team registers the chip for our clients because we know life can get in the way, and a chip without contact information is a dead end for a lost pet.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just as important to share what a chip isn\u2019t<\/em>:\u00a0 it\u2019s not a GPS-type tracker.\u00a0 There\u2019s no way it can tell you if Fluffy is under the porch three doors down or if Scrappy is headed west on Elm Street.\u00a0 And it\u2019s good to relay that an implanted chip never \u201cruns out\u201d or \u201cgets canceled,\u201d because of the original enrollment plan.\u00a0 Sure, the services that each microchip company offers pet owners may vary and many offer buy-up plans with additional services, but the basic ID will always be there.<\/p>\n

Our Healthy Pets Initiative also goes old-school with its preventative measures:\u00a0 we encourage dog and cat owners to rely on microchips in tandem with a collar and identification tag.\u00a0 There\u2019s only an increased chance of pets getting home with these, as someone finding a pet has immediate access to a phone number.\u00a0 That’s good, especially in situations where the finder can\u2019t access a scanner (after-hours or holidays and in cases where transportation is an issue for the finder).<\/p>\n

We\u2019re glad we\u2019re able to provide microchips, one of the most practical preventative measures to keep pets safe and in their loving homes.\u00a0 Not only does it make a difference to a lost pet and their family, but a community with a high rate of chipped pets drops its volume of stray animals.\u00a0 Historically, many strays weren\u2019t getting back home.\u00a0 Chipping changes that, creating positive outcomes, and subsequently letting shelters better focus on fewer animals- the ones that don\u2019t already have homes- and stretch out our limited resources.<\/p>\n

Not sure if your pet\u2019s microchip info is up to date or registered in your name? \u00a0Have your pet scanned at your next vet visit and note the number.\u00a0 You can figure out which brand of chip your pet has by using one of the universal pet microchip look-up registries (such as https:\/\/www.petmicrochiplookup.org\/<\/a>).\u00a0 Then head to that microchip company\u2019s website and follow their instructions to update information.\u00a0 There is often a small fee to transfer a pet\u2019s information from one owner to another, but updating your own is typically free (that is, there\u2019s usually no cost to change to your new cell number or new address).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Suzanne D’Alonzo, Community Outreach Programs Manager At your last regular doctor\u2019s visit for a check-up, were you asked if you exercise? \u00a0Smoke?\u00a0 Even if you wear a helmet while you bike?\u00a0 If your doctor is looking to help you stay in top working order, sure, they see what childhood diseases you might have been …
Read more →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.humanepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.humanepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.humanepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.humanepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.humanepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2684"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.humanepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2687,"href":"https:\/\/blog.humanepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684\/revisions\/2687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.humanepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.humanepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.humanepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}