Microchip moved?

[Rhino94]

Anyone had any experience with this, my rescue boy who we got from Romania has a little raised spot at the top of his front leg. It’s movable and I can only describe it like a tiny little oblong? Is this the microchip and what do we do?

Take him to the vet and ask them to scan it? That will tell you if it's moved.

Yes planning to was just wondering if anyone had had similar and if it has moved then does that matter. Thankyou.

I remember a vet telling me that microchips can migrate. One of our dogs had one that moved quite some distance from its original location.

Yep, they move sometimes. I've heard of one making it to a dogs paw!

It won't cause the dog issues but may take officials longer to find when he's travelling.

I'd ask the vet to locate it and check it's working every check up.

(I'm a vet)

If the vet confirms that it has moved, you could ask to see how easily it can be detected if they only hold the scanner at his neck.

I’ve had two cats who needed a second microchip to allow them to use their catflap (the original was too far down their shoulders to be read easily). It’s not caused any issues for the cats. I just had to cross reference the two numbers on both microchip records in case I needed to report them lost.

My dogs chip moved to his shoulder/ top of his leg 🐕

I'm a vet and this happened to my own dog. It ended up near his shoulder. I was worried that if he ever got lost, someone may not scan him thoroughly enough, and miss the chip, so I implanted a second one in the usual place and kept both sets of details updated.

Had he needed a GA for another reason at some point, I'd have removed the migrated one (wouldn't require any digging around - could feel it just under his skin).

Thankyou all that’s really helpful, will book him into vets!

One of our cats had a chip that migrated round to her shoulder. She went missing and it really troubles me that any vets scanning for a chip might miss it.

I should of added that I got my vet to put a note on his file saying the chip has moved so they knew exactly where to look for it .
You should do the same .

I would imagine a vet would just move the scanner round the cat's body and that it wouldn't be too difficult to find one that had migrated.

You would think that they would do that just incase wouldn’t you!

When we are all taught to scan, we are taught to scan thoroughly in a systematic manner, but I have seen people in rescue centres etc not doing it thoroughly.

So personally, I advise a second chip, rather than risking a chip being missed. E.g. if an animal was involved in a car accident and a decision needed to be made re referring it immediately for expensive surgery (rather than putting to sleep a stray animal with no known owner for its own welfare), I'd want to be sure the chip was found.

This is no use if your animal strays or is stolen etc, and is taken to someone who isn't your vet, to be scanned. They won't magically know to scan elsewhere.

My dog's migrated to just above his thigh! We only found out when it became mandatory to chip dogs and the vet did a routine check that he was chipped at his annual check up. When it wasn't in the expected place, he wafted the scanner round till he found it - it must be common for them to move.

Another vet whose dog's chip has moved over the point of his right elbow.

Yes they do tend to migrate and don’t usually cause an issue with the animal itself. Just means that when scanning the person has to do to it all over the animal not just their back.

I can feel one my dogs. It’s gone down her shoulder to the top of her leg.

I can occasionally feel my cats. Hers is still in her neck

Yes! Our old boys' moved right down to his hips. They only noticed when they were checking his arthritis and felt a lump, lol.