Just a few days after I registered as chipper with RVO (“Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland” – Netherlands Enterprise Agency) I was asked if I’d like to help chip 2 cats with my regular driver at the Animal Ambulance. Of course I would!!!
Today’s the Day!
I met my regular (animal ambulance) driver and an experienced chipper at the address. I was both excited and nervous – my heart pounded, but it calmed a little when I met the 2 beautiful cats – then it raced again; these are real living creature I’ll be sticking a needle into…
I was incredibly grateful an experienced chipper was also with us!
(No doubt I’ll come back and read this post the next time I chip, so I’ll do this bullet style. And note there aren’t any photos in this post as I had my hands full! 😉 )
The Process
- Set up on the table; work with one cat at a time to ensure chips and admin corresponds to the correct cat.
- Check chip works with reader.
- Check number on reader corresponds with number on the packet the needle came in.
- Place sticker with chip number on the admin form and ask owner to complete it.
- Double check there’s an email address for the owner.
This sounds simple but it literally sounded complicated as the chipper read them out from the reader as I checked them against the needle packaging. As an (ex) scientist I thought I was good with numbers, but this is the Netherlands where 234567 is pronounced as “three and twenty five and forty seven and sixty”! I didn’t want to make a mistake so I asked the chipper to stop and let me read out the numbers, one by one. In the right order.
Now it begins…
Holding the cat:
- Use protective gloves.
- If he wants, a cat can wriggle (free) so it’s better to work with the cat.
- Placing liquid snack or similar on the table in front of him helps distract the cat.
- Stroking and scrunching the back of the neck helps the cat get used to this area being touched by the chipper.
It’s more effective to make the cat feel comfortable on the table rather than holding him tightly as we were shown in the course.
Chipping:
- Us the blue hygienic gloves.
- Same strategy as picking up a bird: confident, no hesitation. Pinch and pull skin up as shown in course, insert chip, and squeeze needle when pulling out.
I found the cat skin was tougher than the kitchen cloth we practiced with.
The chipper explained why we “look into the needle” from above; the other way around and it will glance off the cat’s skin.
Checks:
- Put cap back on expended needle to prevent injury.
- Feel the cat’s fur to ensure the chip isn’t there.
- Discard the expended needle (and external chip if there is one) in the special sealed plastic bin.
A flea comb is often used for this, though there wasn’t one with us on this occasion.
If the chip is found outside the cat’s body then discard it because it’s no longer sterile. Start procedure again.
And finally:
- Explain to the owner they’ll receive an email from the animal ambulance within 2 weeks and they need to follow the instructions therein.
- Ensure the form(s) are brought back quickly to the animal ambulance base so the details can be entered into the database (and the instructions to the owner sent via email).
In this special case
“Special” because it was my first time! There were 2 cats (brothers), one was tamer and more social than the other. The tamer one was chipped first; held by the driver and chipped by the chipper whilst I observed closely. He wriggled a lot; the chipper explained that it’s usually the tamer cats who are trickier to chip than the wilder cats!
For the second (wilder) cat, the chipper held him whilst I chipped him under her supervision and help. I helped her check the cat fur afterwards to make sure the chip really was inside the cat and not hanging around somewhere else.
This was a job that I really needed to do properly so I felt a lot of pressure – but the feeling of accomplishment afterwards is greater than any I’ve had in my previous life of number crunching. And yes, chipping cats is extremely important, and I’m happy I can categorise this post under “Animal Caring“! 🙂
“Yes, but does chipping hurt?”
The owners asked this question, and the chipper in true Dutch style gave the blunt answer: Yes. The needle is wide, so yes it hurts. There was no sugar coating (e.g. the needle is sharp, or the cat is more concerned with other dangers like strangers around him), but the cats were allowed to have the left over liquid snack! 🙂
Afterwards I chatted with one of the owners; with their permission I’m going to write this experience up into an article for the next edition (#49) of the Animal Ambulance Magazine.
