Equine Veterniary Services Inc. is pleased to announce that we now offer the AVID Equine Microchip.

After the recent fires in East San Diego County, many animals including horses were on the loose, making it very difficult to get each animal back to their owners. A horse with the Avid Equine Microchip would have been identified and returned to their rightful owner quickly and without confusion. I feel this is the easiest and most cost effective way of tracking your animals and for identification purposes.

Please contact us directly at 619.659.1180 and we can discuss whether the AVID Equine Microchip is the right choice for your horse.

1. Why should I microchip my horse?

The tiny chip provides a permanent “inside” social security number for your horse.  The number can be used for all things important. As direct correlation with genetic work, for positive ID in cases of disaster, loss or theft, and at inspections, events, and when buying and selling.  The chip is there to say the horse is the horse. If your horse has a microchip, he is always traceable back to you because his chip is registered. 

2. How can the microchip help if my horse is stolen?

The chip number provides law enforcement the equivalent of a ‘Vehicle Identification Number’ for your horse, and provides you with proof that it is YOUR horse.  In combination with AVID’s published Hot Sheets of stolen ID numbers, not only is the public alerted, but thieves are deterred. We also offer signs to post at your barn or on fences, letting visitors know that your horses are permanently identified with registered microchips.

3.  What about an emergency, a fire, flood, storm, etc?  Will the chip help save my horse?

AVID currently works with national emergency preparedness groups in America.  These groups have hundreds of members who travel to emergency areas to save animals.  They are equipped with universal AVID scanners, and scanning for microchips is their ideal and preferred method of locating owners.  When a microchip is found in a horse, he is a phone call away from being reunited with his owner.

Owners of microchipped horses are found immediately when chips are traced through the database.  Non-chipped horses typically take much longer, or just never get returned to the owner. 

4.   The chip is invisible.  How can it benefit my horse?

Your social security number, also invisible, is tied to all you do throughout your life.  It identifies you and what you do.  Similarly, microchips provide the most reliable form of instant permanent ID.  And the chip is unalterable and always there.  The number can be checked and verified immediately.  Correlated with the appropriate document (DNA, registration documents, event entries, etc.), the chip provides an instantaneous confirmation that the horse in question is the correct animal.  Microchip numbers can be used as proof-positive when transporting, buying, selling, breeding, recordation, insuring, and protecting from disease by way of veterinary paperwork.

5.    Does the chip cause pain when injected?  Will it interfere with my horse’s performance?

No.  It takes only seconds to do, a simple injection. Most horses don’t even flinch, and their performance is not compromised at all.

6. At what age can my horse be given the AVID microchip? Can the chip be felt by hand?

 Any age.  No, you cannot feel a properly implanted microchip, nor can your horse.

7.  How long does the chip last? Does it wear out?  Can my horse feel anything when he is being   scanned?      

The chip is guaranteed for the lifetime of your horse. It will not wear out or fade.  The horse feels nothing at all when he is being ‘scanned’.   The chip reader sends out a radiowave signal to the chip.  Within milliseconds, the tiny microchip sends back it’s number to the scanner to be displayed in the viewing window.

8.   Where is the chip implanted?  Can it be removed?

The chip goes into the nuchal ligament just below the mane about half way between the poll and withers. No, it cannot be removed without surgery, and even then, the task would be daunting.

9. How is the chip traced back to me? Who keeps the registry of microchips?

AVID chips are always registered when they are sold or put into an animal.  The database is kept by AVID (American Veterinary Identification Device), the largest supplier of microchips in the United States. Your vet’s information is recorded along with the chip number.  If you want to take it a step further, you can register your horse in a 24/7 loss and recovery network, called HORSE trac.  This takes the chip out of the vet’s name and registers it directly to you.  In this way, YOU receive the call when your horse is located.

Many horse registries also use the chip in their own record keeping.   A microchip number is very much like your social security number.  Your SS number correlates to all you do, belongs to you, and is used by everyone you deal with when documenting who you are. 

When your horse has a microchip number, everything he does that requires identification, is simplified…and unmistakable.

Testimonials

Last year,  rural San Diego County was ravaged by firestorms, forcing the evacuation of  thousands of horses.  In the weeks  that followed, hundreds of horses were lost, as owners had no idea which  evacuation sites may be holding their  livestock. This year we  held an Equine Microchip Clinic. Of course, after doing our research, we decided  to use the AVID microchip.We chipped 80  animals today!  Thank you for making  our clinic a success! We are  already planning our next one.

R. Officer Linda  Schumacher
Chula Vista Mounted  Police