Here Is My Story, How About Yours?

[di and bob]

There have been literally millions of chips implanted with no ill effects, so I hope that can be comforting. It is also teh only way MANY cats have found their way home when they got into trucks and were carted many miles from home.
Having them neutered is the best thing you could have done, cats in heat are very annoying (and almost constantly are until they get mated) Vaccines I recommend after having a whole litter of beautiful kittens die in my arms, and their mother, after she was dumped pregnant on my doorstep with distemper. Thank God my house cats were vaccinated or they could have died too. It ripped through the neighborhood like a plague. The side effects of these vaccines are a LOT less dangerous then your cat getting the disease.
You will be blessed for taking in these cats, you are an angel here on earth and I wish you the very best of luck!

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

My apartment cats were no vacs no I'd chip. Zoe came from the Humane Society id chipped. I got all the rest chipped because buckled collars are bad and the breakaway collars are useless. My cat(s) get out and lost I want them back asap. I realize there is a risk but my vet told me the risk of losing them is greater and I have to agree.

You are not crazy it depends on the need of the individual pet owner. I am a bit on the paranoid of losing my cat.

... The amount of people that act like I'm nuts for thinking the chips are a bad idea. Im talking about local cat folks...not this group. This world is so upside down...just seriously, common sense should tell you that a permanent frequency device implanted in the body is NOT a good idea. But to each his own, and therein lies the choice of the owner and not the vet.
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There have been literally millions of chips implanted with no ill effects, so I hope that can be comforting. It is also teh only way MANY cats have found their way home when they got into trucks and were carted many miles from home.
...
You will be blessed for taking in these cats, you are an angel here on earth and I wish you the very best of luck!

I think it depends entirely upon the circumstances, lifestyle, control of indoor versus outdoor, weighing of risks and consequences, uses of other types of ID'ing (success and types of collars, for example, as Shane Kent mentions above), a variety of things. Being microchipped and maintaining that updated contact info has helped countless people and animals, no doubt! None of this, in my view, takes away from me thinking that the pet owner should decide... as long as they come to terms with any ramifications of whether they microchip or don't microchip.

 

[CrystalBecameACatLady]

An interesting 14 minute video and possible starting point to looking outside of the box...and read the video comments too...

Do MICROCHIPS Kill Pets? Hidden Agenda: Electroni…:

 

[CrystalBecameACatLady]

And what's wrong with good old fashioned tattooing? No 24/7 lifelong radio frequency and both methods of identifying are uploaded into a database. Plus you don't need any gun, let alone a universal gun reader, for a tattoo...all you need are your eyes and kitty is still just as identifiable.

Hoping that the video I posted above opens some eyes.

 

[CrystalBecameACatLady]

There have been literally millions of chips implanted with no ill effects, so I hope that can be comforting. It is also teh only way MANY cats have found their way home when they got into trucks and were carted many miles from home.
Having them neutered is the best thing you could have done, cats in heat are very annoying (and almost constantly are until they get mated) Vaccines I recommend after having a whole litter of beautiful kittens die in my arms, and their mother, after she was dumped pregnant on my doorstep with distemper. Thank God my house cats were vaccinated or they could have died too. It ripped through the neighborhood like a plague. The side effects of these vaccines are a LOT less dangerous then your cat getting the disease.
You will be blessed for taking in these cats, you are an angel here on earth and I wish you the very best of luck!

Actually you are just regurgitating what you've been told. Laboratory studies showed 1-10% of them develop cancer. What's 10% of a million? Do that math. Shocking huh?

I don't mean to sound rude and I'm sure you mean well but that kind of thinking is called group think, bordering on communism/socialism. My pets are individuals as am I. I cannot and will not do something just because everyone else does.

Let's look at vaccines since you brought them up. Firstly didn't God give us an immune system? That goes for animals too. Story after story of vaccine injured children flood the media and still the collective all line up for vaccines. I pity them. But that is their choice.

Now in humans we can see the vaccine injury more easily than we can in animals....just think for a moment and apply common sense. Does anyone really believe that the vaccinations for animals are any safer? Sadly most folks are now looking at me like I've grown a 2nd head.


Sorry to sound harsh but I am very weary of seeing most folks just mindlessly follow the crowd. I'm a nurse and I am fully against vaccines. For humans and pets. I'm the minority. That's OK by me.

I'm putting my efforts into rescuing kitties to provide the best chance at a healthful happy life...vaccines and implants completely undermine my efforts.

Sorry to sound harsh...that's just the reality of it for me. Maybe when you have time you can watch the 14 minute YouTube link that I posted. It might shock you.

Thanks for being a kitty rescuer too.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

To me, the beneficial part of that video is the portion with the vet, around 4:42-7:20.


Anyway, my cat's ears are tattooed as her ID. But things can "go wrong" with that type of ID'ing, too, just like with microchipping. A human still has to keep up with relevant database changes, and update things as needed. For example, one letter in one of Milly's ear tats has already faded and become less discernable and it's only been two years since her initial tattooing.

 

[CrystalBecameACatLady]

To me, the beneficial part of that video is the portion with the vet, around 4:42-7:20.


Anyway, my cat's ears are tattooed as her ID. But things can "go wrong" with that type of ID'ing, too, just like with microchipping. A human still has to keep up with relevant database changes, and update things as needed. For example, one letter in one of Milly's ear tats has already faded and become less discernable and it's only been two years since her initial tattooing.

Yes just like my own hideous 25 year old tattoo I assume.

But here's the thing...we can never ever head off every tragedy and illness. We live on a fallen sin corrupted earth...People will get sick, we will die...This is the same for our pets. Bad things do happen. The statistics just aren't there to show chips are massively reuniting lost pets with owners. For me the risk was not worth it.

Yes that vet was my favorite part of the video.

It just seems that if folks would do a little bit of independent study and thinking then logic would kick in and they'd come to realize that a permanent radio frequency device implanted in a living being is never ever good.

There is a much bigger agenda at hand and the majority are going right along and not questioning anything.

 

[di and bob]

1-10% may get cancer from the microchipping? My research brings up LESS THAN 1%. And it is still not conclusive that the chip caused the cancer or if the animal was predisposed to cancer from anything. there is no battery involved, so nothing is 'emitted' from the implant. It cannot 'track' the animal. It is activated by the scanner. 10,000 pets A MONTH are united with their owners through these chips. 1.8% of cats are reunited without chips, 38.5% are reunited with chips, even more with dogs. Millions of children died that didn't have to because of not being vaccinated years ago, now children are dieing again because of this same reason. The risks of the vaccinations are by far less than the risk of dieing from the disease itself. I am a registered nurse too, and when I think of the millions of children and adults that died from smallpox, or became deaf or blind, or crippled by many others it makes me sick to think that it could have been prevented. And all that are statistics that can be proven. I argue with people all the time about myths that are still brought up, cats suck the breath out of babies? Black cats are bad luck? Vaccinations cause autism? Do people honestly think there is a conspiracy keeping these things under wraps? If there was true proof, these would be the headlines in every paper in the world.
I respect your decisions,because everyone is entitled, but if following the crowd means following proven science and LEGITIMATE studies, so be it.

 

[CrystalBecameACatLady]

1-10% may get cancer from the microchipping? My research brings up LESS THAN 1%. And it is still not conclusive that the chip caused the cancer or if the animal was predisposed to cancer from anything. there is no battery involved, so nothing is 'emitted' from the implant. It cannot 'track' the animal. It is activated by the scanner. 10,000 pets A MONTH are united with their owners through these chips. 1.8% of cats are reunited without chips, 38.5% are reunited with chips, even more with dogs. Millions of children died that didn't have to because of not being vaccinated years ago, now children are dieing again because of this same reason. The risks of the vaccinations are by far less than the risk of dieing from the disease itself. I am a registered nurse too, and when I think of the millions of children and adults that died from smallpox, or became deaf or blind, or crippled by many others it makes me sick to think that it could have been prevented. And all that are statistics that can be proven. I argue with people all the time about myths that are still brought up, cats suck the breath out of babies? Black cats are bad luck? Vaccinations cause autism? Do people honestly think there is a conspiracy keeping these things under wraps? If there was true proof, these would be the headlines in every paper in the world.
I respect your decisions,because everyone is entitled, but if following the crowd means following proven science and LEGITIMATE studies, so be it.

Awe no worries. You are in the majority. No hard feelings at all, I'm completely used to reactions like that. I'm a nurse too and you actually are putting out misinformation.

This was my first time visiting a chat forum like this site. I typically use Facebook. Feel free to contact me on that site...I'm not sure this method of communication here works for me. So I will probably return to using Facebook.

 

[Sarthur2]

Wishing you all the best with your kitties!

Is your little guy all better now?

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

And what's wrong with good old fashioned tattooing? No 24/7 lifelong radio frequency and both methods of identifying are uploaded into a database. Plus you don't need any gun, let alone a universal gun reader, for a tattoo...all you need are your eyes and kitty is still just as identifiable.

Hoping that the video I posted above opens some eyes.

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Yes that vet was my favorite part of the video.
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When I wrote, simply, "To me, the beneficial part of that video is the portion with the vet, around 4:42-7:20", I was just trying to be restrained in my response to the video. Even that part which had this vet talking about microchipping was very edited and snipped, so I wonder what the vet's unedited presentation has in it. (I can probably look into that by trying to seek the full video of that vet.) I personally feel videos like this are actually more alienating with the general public rather than fully effective. If a person is just wanting to know simple cut-to-the-chase information surrounding a procedure or whatnot, what works for most people might be using a lot less drama, propaganda and narrative. I kept expecting to see Boris Karloff in that video.

It's not my style to have to plow through a lot of narrative and editing in a hyperbolic video if I just simply want to know the risks and benefits from a particular procedure. Or if I want to know the bare-bones pros and cons of any topic. I instead would contact and consult several vets, rescue and TNR people, other sources, to get multiple opinions from which I myself would ponder and then make my own decision. I think it should be a personal choice and not mandatory legally. To put a bit of humor in this, I personally feel that many people while watching that full video might feel like they've been stuck in a room and told to suck a lemon, listen to fingernails scratch a chalkboard, and made to watch a moving conveyor belt featuring all of their least-favorite-vegetables roll in front of their eyes. This is my opinion.

I also think that no one should infer that their reasons for microchipping or not microchipping are also someone else's reasons.


I still hold to this:

"I think it depends entirely upon the circumstances, lifestyle, control of indoor versus outdoor, weighing of risks and consequences, uses of other types of ID'ing (success and types of collars, for example, as Shane Kent mentions above), a variety of things. Being microchipped and maintaining that updated contact info has helped countless people and animals, no doubt! None of this, in my view, takes away from me thinking that the pet owner should decide... as long as they come to terms with any ramifications of whether they microchip or don't microchip."​

In some cases, people decide that any risks to their individual animal, whether it is a young kitten or an older animal, outweigh any benefit of this type of ID'ing. I feel like it is easier to decide early on not to microchip (with a young kitten, for example) and then you can decide later that, if you have had any changeable lifestyle or other circumstances that might develop which could benefit from an ID microchip, you can have the procedure done at that later time. With me, to get a kitten orphaned at 4 days old with a compromised immune system outfitted with a microchip that could possibly be misplaced in the animal's body via an incompetent vet tech or vet at the time, or a chip implanted which could be rejected by the orphaned animal's weaker immune system, leaving the owner subsequently faced with not being able to remove said microchip from the kitten without unacceptable damage to the animal can weigh into a personal decision.

It's not like all or any of us have 100% of the answers or understandings of any topic.

I do think there are many cases of people being reunited with their animals via proper use of microchipping. If you decide to do alternative ways of ID'ing your animal, I feel you should understand the possible ramifications of your choice. The bottom line to me is finding your beloved animal again, if it gets lost, etc. I also think you should understand possible health ramifications of what has sometimes happened with microchipping animals. Most chips are put in between the shoulder blades, usually they stay in place... but I've often wondered about this location in the first place. Is it a great location? I don't know. I know that with my last cat, I often had to give her fluids in that location during her last months of life. She was chipped because she came from HSUS originally. I wondered if sometimes the needle I had to use to give her fluids in that location ever jammed into or bumped against her microchip & caused pain... because sometimes she reacted more in pain to the 18 gauge or 20 gauge needles than at other times (these are standard needles for giving fluids), and the fluids' needle always had slightly different points of entry between her shoulder blades.

I don't know, but I don't mind people thinking about it and discussing it.

I just don't think it should necessarily be a thread of heightened emotions or too much drama, but I understand people do feel strongly about topics.

I mean no disrespect or belittling by voicing my opinion here, and I apologize in advance if I haven't worded my opinion well.

 

[ileen]

I would like to commend you all for presenting your side of the issue without attacking each other. Unfortunately it's rare to see this kind of mature discourse on a subject that brings out passions online.