Microchips are being used with increasing frequency in pets. I recommend them in my patients. Microchips have made it possible for me to reunite several missing pets with the people who were looking for them.

It turns out that I am not the only vet who has used microchips to return lost pets to their people. Here is a brief article from the October 10, 2008 issue of The Week.

Last week, Jay Getman noticed a mangy, lonely looking Golden Retriver shivering outside the travel agency where he works in Saint Petersburg, Fla. He cleaned up the dog, fed him, and took him to a local vet. Scanning the dog for an embedded microchip, the doctor found that he belonged to Elizabeth Carter of Atlanta. “Pepper” had run away nine months ago, while Carter and her family were on vacation, and somehow traveled hundreds of miles. Carter immediately drove from Atlanta to reclaim her pet. “She was blown away,” Getman said. “She couldn’t believe it.”

It’s a heartwarming story, and it definitely fuels my conviction that microchips are in my patients’ best interest.