Acute pain would be something along the lines of right after surgery or if your dog had a wound or anything like that that was initially a cut. And so we can use the laser that to run over that wound. We especially like to use it after surgery. So if your dog was spayed or neutered we can use the laser over that site to help reduce swelling and inflammation in that area and also speed up healing time a bit. When it comes to chronic wounds, we can use those the laser for things like arthritis. We can also use it for ear infections that have maybe caused the ear canal itself to become really swollen. And kind of the same concept, we're trying to decrease a lot of that inflammation that's associated with those tissues and promote overall healing and a lot healthier, normal cells to develop.

We use a cold laser, so this is a machine that is not going to cut or anything like that like you may be familiar with with laser surgery. But the cold laser goes in and targets the cells and the tissues that are associated with inflammation and helps those to subside a bit.

Just like with everything technology wise, it can fail. Although very rare, we have had to put another chip in or replace that microchip itself. Most of the time they will continue working throughout your dog's life.

Not quite. It's something that your dog is fully awake for, and so as far as the pain with it, it's just the initial injection. They may be a little bit uncomfortable as their skin heals from it, but otherwise it's a very quick recovery period.

Well, we've poked your dog, so perhaps they’re a little bit traumatized from that. But as I said, most of them tolerate it very well. The biggest risk is to have a microchip move from the normal location. It's not a frequent occurrence but possible. And so we always want to ensure that we are scanning the entire dog. Another risk that we can have is that that microchip does actually migrate into places that it shouldn't be. It's very rare, but we may see the chip migrate into the spinal cord itself. And so it has been shown to cause some problems there. And then obviously if your dog were to need to have any procedures or anything done in that area and the microchip could possibly inadvertently be removed or we could even see the actual chip cause a reaction. But again, those are all very rare side effects.

Just as with any other needle it doesn't feel the best, but most of our dogs tolerate it very well. We have come to find that the needle is very sharp and with a sharper needle there won’t be nearly as much trauma to the skin. And most dogs tolerate it, especially if we add in a little bit of peanut butter or marshmallows.

So your dog can be microchipped by most veterinarians and even some shelters and rescues offer the chipping as well. So give them a call and say you want to schedule to get that microchip placed.