Microchips are currently passive devices. They don't emit a signal like a GPS, so at this point, it will not identify where your cat is, like find-my-phone on your Apple phone. However, it is a way for a veterinary clinic, a police department, and a shelter to be able to find you and your phone number from the database where the microchip is registered.

The microchip is a great way for you to have permanent identification under your pet's skin. So if a cat gets lost or stolen or wanders away and shows up someplace at somebody's house, at a shelter, or a police department, they're going to be able to find your cat a way back home because they'll have a way to reach you by phone.

Collars and tags can be removed. We used to do a lot of tattoos, and even tattoos can be altered. So those aren't always a guarantee, but a microchip being under the skin is something people can't find and remove. That microchip will stay with your dog forever.

There are no promises. If dogs get lost, they can end up in places where we never find them. But if your dog is found, preferably alive, or if something terrible happened to them, at least you'll have some peace of mind knowing that if your dog is available to come back to you, they will find their way back home. Hopefully, anybody that finds the dog will take them to a veterinarian or a shelter that can scan that dog and help them find their way back home again.

Almost every shelter at this point has a scanning device, and most microchips are universal. So universally, it is something that a microchip scanner will pick up. It would be unusual for a shelter not to be able to scan a microchip.

Microchips are passive devices, so for right now, it doesn't emit a signal that goes to a satellite to identify the dog's location. That requires more of a GPS type of device, which is not as well developed at this point. If a police department, a veterinary clinic, a humane society, or a shelter scans the microchip, the microchip number is unique to you, and that shelter, police department, or veterinary clinic will be able to call the microchip company to get your contact information and help you get your dog back.

A microchip is the single most important way that you can get your dog back. Tags on collars and GPS tags, all those things can get lost or can be hung up on a fence or a tree. They can be taken off by someone who maliciously wants to keep the dog from being identified. But a microchip is permanent. It's under the skin and will be the best way of getting your dog back to you should they get lost or stolen.

If we're dealing with a cat who is in heat and gets spayed, the hormones will linger for a little while. I wouldn't expect the vocalizing to go away immediately, but it will decrease over a few weeks. We shouldn't see any more of the vocalization that's very well-known for feline cats in heat after those hormones subside. We don't see a lot of that vocalization in male cats unless that's just them. Some cats are more talkative than others, especially our Siamese friends. They're known for being talkative, and they like to chat. I have two Siamese cats of my own at home. They have lots of things to say on a daily basis. From morning to night, my cats will have a running conversation about what they have going on in their lives and how they feel about it.

It is surgery. They're under anesthesia when this happens, so do they feel pain during the surgery? No, of course not. They're asleep just like we would be asleep. Here at Four Paws, I take pain control seriously, and I do a lot more than a lot of regular veterinarians, which means our costs will be slightly higher, but I know my patients are much more comfortable. They get pre-op pain injections, intra-op pain injections, and local incisional blocks, and they get cold laser when they wake up, cold packing, and medications to go home for pain, inflammation, and straight pain. We do a really good job here making sure our patients recover, and we have fewer complications because you can't heal when you're in pain. As much as we don't like to have to medicate our animals, studies have shown both humans and animals will heal better if you have pain control post-op.

It definitely can. Spraying can be site marking. In male cats, if they're young enough and we catch them before they're about six months of age, if they are starting to spray, or if we neuter them before that starts to happen, the chances of them spraying will decrease. Sometimes when we take away that high-drive testosterone that makes a male want to mark his territory, the urge to spray can decrease. Is it a hundred percent guaranteed that if you neuter your cat, the spraying will go away? No. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees in medicine. I wish there were. I would be a millionaire if there were, but it can help reduce the behavior, and the hope would be that it would stop completely. It definitely helps the smell because tomcat urine is the worst smell on the entire face of the planet.