I've just seen the thread about spaniels . So thought I'd just mention about free microchipping for doggies.
If anyone lives in or around the Darlington area, my practice is doing free microchipping (01325 787 370 if you'd like one).
If you are nowhere near Darlington, then call 0330 1230 334 or visit www.chipmydog.org.uk
It will soon be law for all canines to be identichipped, so make use of us qualified (!) vets who will do it free.

chipmydog? Isn't that rather sexist? Shouldn't we have a chipmybitch site also? GONE - '07 TD4 GS manual Zermatt Silver
LONG GONE - '55 Norton Dominator 99 SS cafe racer

Goods news Becky, we took ours to France last month and although she is 'chipped' and our vet issued a pet passport, we worried that as a rescue dog the owners are the animal rescue organisation where we got her from and we are only 'adoptive parents'.
When we re-entered the UK and handed the reader back to the official do they only see and match the number or do they also see the owner details, which in this case is 'HAWT' (Hull Animal Welfare Trust)

Mine will already have been chipped, so I need to just transfer ownership I assume Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

hi nick, if your pup has been docked it will have been chiped usually by the vet that did the docking.on the docking certificate there should be a microchip number that relates to your pup.when I have bred litters of springers I give the pups new owner the microchip registration form and they send it off in their name ,a little advice when you are getting the pup inoculated get the vet to scan the microchip for its number to see if it relates to your number,little mistakes can be made when pups look so alike colours and markings`.

It is docked and chipped, but good advice on the scan to check  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

My deaf old fat lump has his chip scanned every time he has his booster just so I know it is still working and has not migrated to another part of his body.

Does it make them run faster or just eat less fuel?

EYorkshire wrote:

Goods news Becky, we took ours to France last month and although she is 'chipped' and our vet issued a pet passport, we worried that as a rescue dog the owners are the animal rescue organisation where we got her from and we are only 'adoptive parents'.
When we re-entered the UK and handed the reader back to the official do they only see and match the number or do they also see the owner details, which in this case is 'HAWT' (Hull Animal Welfare Trust)

Lol...dread to think what a "chipped spaniel" would be like.
Interestingly enough, I used to be a big advocate of the pet passport scheme, what better than to take your beloved dog on holiday with you- after all who would want to spend two weeks in a concrete prison?
That was until one of my favourite clients went away on holiday with their two collie dogs... on return, Callie was vaguely unwell... Nothing the owners could pinpoint- but as so many owners will tell me- I know my dog and its just not right.
I had a sneaky suspicion that we were looking at a non-UK infectious disease. I sent some bloods away and the dog came back as being infected with Leishmaniasis. They had been on holiday to the costal region of Spain and she must have been bitten by an infected phlebotomine sandfly. We started treatment straight away, but Callie just continued to deteriorate. The owners had to make the heartbreaking decision to have her put to sleep...
So now I'm not a fan of taking UK dogs overseas- there are so many tick borne and insect vector diseases that UK pets have no immunity to.
The pet passport scheme has changed- making it easier and cheaper for people to exit and re-enter the country. There is now NO requirement for a UK bred dog to have the rabies blood test after vaccination- consequently how can we be totally sure the vaccine has "worked" and there is no requirement for tick treatment- only tapeworm treatment pre-rentry into the UK.
I would urge anyone considering going abroad with their pet to seriously consider whether it is worth the risk...also to source the best repellant products to use whilst away-scalibor collars/spray frontline/serestor collars.

 From a time when dinosaurs weren't just confined to zoos!

Last edited by Graham t on 26th Jul 2014 3:25 pm. Edited 1 time in total

Graham T... What that vet did is ILLEGAL. Attitudes like that put EVERY dog at risk of tapeworm disease....
Oh and even better news- YOU can catch it too!! Ecchinococcus looks gorgeous on BRAIN MRI scans.

MM said quote " after all who would want to spend two weeks in a concrete prison? "unquote.

Unfortunately it is comments like these that get all Boarding Kennels lumped together. Yes there are bad ones agreed but there are also some very very good ones where dogs get looked after better than in their own home.

Having run boarding kennels for more than 21 years we found most of the problems lay directly at the owners feet.
First of all more often than not owners go for either the nearest or cheapest and don't bother to take a day out checking on different kennels first. Next they don't introduce a dog as a young puppy into kennels and more often than not rely on friends/neighbours (as they are skinflints) until the dog is so old it starts having health problems.

Its only then, BECAUSE THE OWNERS MUST HAVE THEIR HOLIDAY and the friends and neighbours don,t want the bother to look after someones dog that these so called dog lovers turn as a last resort to a boarding kennels, and then if a dog has to go to the vets whilst under kennel care that the kennels get the blame.


Sorry MM but you are entirely wrong thinking like that, we have even had clients trying to book in very very poorly dogs actually hoping they would die in kennels to avoid vet fees etc and try and sue our kennels. We were well up to that trick as well as owners trying to board dogs in whelp and about ready to drop puppies and should something go wrong then again it is the kennel owners fault.

Obviously you have such little knowledge of boarding kennels you should withdraw making such unknowledgeable remarks and at the very least say sorry

Oh and we did have well over 5000 clients on our books and during the 21 years we had well over 200,000 days of dogs booked with only 4 complaints, one being the client turned up with an unvaccinated dog -another turned up after we had close -another hadn';t been for over 6 years and the dog was very old so we refused to take the booking and the last had a skin condition when it came in and got worst and was under vet care by us who picked up the bill.
PS we had a large cattery as well


Not a bad record in my books anyway Ex 2010 Freelander2 GS-e Diesel manual Silver owner

Its only then, BECAUSE THE OWNERS MUST HAVE THEIR HOLIDAY and the friends and neighbours don,t want the bother to look after someones dog that these so called dog lovers turn as a last resort to a boarding kennels, and then if a dog has to go to the vets whilst under kennel care that the kennels get the blame.

Your wrong, don't tar all dog owners with the same brush, I know I can speak for another poster in this thread, Dogs are a large part of our life, two of our dogs always come away with us, in fact we are away at the moment with them, the other one can't be with us as our son demands she stays with him.
Never used kennels ever, no plans to either.

Realspeed. I stand beside every statement I make.
Yes, not all kennels are concrete prisons... But they are alien environments to most household dogs who have owners there all day... To be suddenly turfed out of a lovely routine and put behind bars, 4 ft by 6ft space... Hardly homely? The prison analogy is not too dissimilar, concrete (for hygiene washing purposes), CCTV, steel bars at the windows... Small exercise runs...
Clearly your clients had the benefit of your marvellous facilities. I have done enough inspections in my time to know most kennel facilities provide a kennel space, heating, a run, 3 walks a day. Yes that meets the welfare requirements but it's not dissimilar to a prison routine.