Check the Chip Day reunites families

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An orange tabby cat named T2 escaped from his owner's temporary home in Florida following a hurricane in 2004. Just this past March, he arrived in an animal shelter as a stray and was reunited with his owner after more than 14 years apart.

Dixxy, a beagle, disappeared from her Maryland home in 2013 and turned up two years later at an Oklahoma animal shelter. Her owners, who had given up hope of ever finding her, picked her up two days later.

Both reunions were made possible by microchips – microchips that linked these much-loved pets with the current contact information for their families.

Wednesday is Check the Chip Day, when veterinarians remind animal owners to check and update the contact information registered with their pets’ microchips. As important and valuable as a microchip is, it’s only as good as the information on file with it.

If you haven’t already made use of our Check the Chip Day veterinary toolkit, there’s still time. Among other resources, it includes social media posts and images you can share to encourage your clients to ensure their pets’ microchip registrations are up to date. The toolkit also provides other message templates and a downloadable client handout.

Check the Chip Day helps you extend your relationship with clients by working with them to ensure their families will be reunited if pets become separated from them. The AVMA sponsors Check the Chip Day every August 15 to remind pet owners to have their pets microchipped and keep the registration information current.

It’s a particularly timely message for clients who might be considering bringing home a new pet during the nationwide “Clear the Shelters” pet adoption event taking place this Saturday, Aug. 18. Clear the Shelters, sponsored by Hill’s Pet Nutrition with NBC and Telemundo, has resulted in more than 150,000 pet adoptions in the past three years, and it’s important for all of those new pet owners to make sure their adoptees are microchipped and the registration paperwork is submitted.

The AVMA also has a wide range of materials you can share with new pet owners, and anyone considering getting a new pet, including:

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