Re-registering a UK microchip in France

[Penny29]

Just posting this for information really.

Like many people we had our British dogs microchipped in Britain prior to export. The address entered onto the UK database (Petlog) was that of our first known French (rented) home (and, as it turns out this was a complete waste of time!)

Now we are fnally settled in a permanent home I spoke to my vet here about registering the new address and found, as I already suspected, that the UK and the French databases cannot "speak" to each other. So if I change the address details with Petlog UK (at a cost of £5 per animal) & the dog gets lost then the French authorities will be able to scan the chip okay but they will be unable to trace the dog's address via their registry, so then the dog will be treated as lost and unidentified and end up in the SPA.

My vet has now supplied me with the official forms to complete so that my critters can be registered under the French system. The forms are very simple to fill in - just name, address, chip number etc. The vet then scans the dog to confirm the number, signs and stamps the papers, relieves me of E10 per form, and then sends the paperwork off to the French registry. After a few week my pets will have French identity certs (mandatory now in Dept 24 where we are on a rabies alert).

My vet also said that the British practice is to insert the chip into the back of the neck whereas French vets pop it at the side of the neck. He has suggested that we attach discs to the dog's collars stating "puce anglais" just in case the dogs should ever get lost and the chips are missed by the SPA scanner.

We didn't know how to go about this process, so hope this post will help point someone else in the right direction.

 

 

 

[I1]

Very useful information. I knew I had to do something (related to the SCC) but "have not got round to it". My vet has never had problems finding my UK dog's microchip (as it was actually put in at the bottom on the neck and has migrated a bit round to the shoulder).

I do find it surprising that these days with the simplicity of Information Technology and the Internet (I work in IT) together with the international travel available to pets that the databases are not connected/available (or that there isn't a single european database).

Chips do have a country prefix (as when my vet firts read my French pup's chip he immediately told me "its a Fench dog" (whch I didn't like to point out to him - but I already knew that).

[Penny29]

Yes, I find it ridiculous too - after all what is the point in having the animals microchipped for Pet Passports at all if there isn't a shared database.

I suppose, if my dog were lost and scanned it would show up, as you say, as an "English" dog, but then one has to wonder if anyone at the SPA here would go to the trouble of contacting Petlog in the UK.

I think the system is daft - if anyone else can shed any light on why there isn't an international database I'd be interested.

[Boghound]

[quote]Yes, I find it ridiculous too - after all what is the point in having the animals microchipped for Pet Passports at all if there isn't a shared database. I suppose, if my dog were lost and scanned i...[/quote]

Hey, come on Penny. This is France after all and when have the French conformed to anything international!

[I1]

Another perspective might be "When have the UK participated properly in Europe".

[Coral]

Penny, Thanks for the info . I'll definitely have to get my two re-registered when I get to France. They were micro chipped in Japan. TI image that might cause some confusion.

Coral - soon to be in Ariege along with George E and Suzie Pussybobs.

[Boghound]

[quote]Another perspective might be "When have the UK participated properly in Europe".[/quote]

Why should they? When we have saved their "skins" many times. It's Europe that should be participating in the UK not the other way round. France should think it's self honoured that so many British want to live here in the run-down property that the French have been dying to "off-load" for years.

[Coral]

Wow Boghound you really like stirring up the ****!!

[Boghound]

[quote]Wow Boghound you really like stirring up the ****!![/quote]

Yep! Because there's an awfull lot of it on this forum.

[I1]

People may be interested to know that there actually is a European based organisation “bringing together” the pet registrations from differing European countries (http://www.europetnet.com/home.asp). I does not run a “common” single database, but will search databases from member countries.

It includes a lot of the European countries (excluding Portugal, Ireland and France, and some others, particularly the newer European countries – if anybody is interested, check the site above). Their access includes the General Assembly of EPN

If they do not have information about your pet (which is probably the case if your dog was micro-chipped in France), you can send them the details (though I have not done this for my pets yet).

When you enter a micro-chip number they do not tell you who it is registered to (i.e. not your name and address) but rather which database it is registered on and information about how to contact the “owners” of the database.

[mutley]

since the introduction of the fifteen digit ISO chip they do come with a country code not always accurate as chips will travel before they are implanted it also doesn't take into account other chips who don't have the same format I can think of at least four. apparently there are 14 registered databases with some accpeting individual customised numbers allowing for some dogs to have duplicate numbers .......;gets more complicated all the time.

Of course this issue has applied to tattoos for many years.

I have always found any chip manufacturer very helful when needing to trace a chip with an unkown database they usually have access to the relevant information and a dog that was chipped could be traced providing the database was kept up to date and that is the biggest problem

 

 

 

[Maddie]

To add my two cents worth:

My dogs both have UK chips, registered with Petlog.  I paid a small one off fee and can change my address as often as I like online for no extra charge.  So I can update both a UK and French address.  Also, if for any reason my dogs are in the UK and I am not, there is a record of a French address (just call me Marvin ).

Both dogs have identity discs with my name, French address and telephone number on them

My vet here in France has a scanner the size of a small country and can read the microchips from 10 paces regardless of location!  On one dog, the chip has migrated slightly to the left shoulder.  My French vet has no problem finding it but my vet in the UK always had problems (and he fitted it!) .

As an added precaution (and as the French general public are more aware of it), I had both dogs tattooed at the cost of E55 each (a bargain compared to UK prices - included staying at vet in hospital for the day, a general anaesthetic (E55 would not have covered the cost of the gas in the UK) and the tattoo).  So dogs are registered immediately with SCC and I have the paperwork to prove it.

On their new EU Pet Passports there is a record of both the tattoo details and the microchip!

 

[mutley]

New registrations are pretty quick, alterations change of ownership is another story all together :-(

[I1]

That would fit as when I purchased my puppy (at 8 weeks) they already had will the registration stuff. However at age rearly 10 months (nearly 8 months later) I still have not received anything from SCC. I was told the other day its "7 months" for change of ownership.