Dog & Cat
Microchipping and Ultrasounds

FAQs are Frequently Asked Questions.

The list of questions and answers below should answer most of your queries. If you still have any questions please feel free to contact Caroline directly who will be happy to help.

Appointments can be made for flexible times throughout the week. Caroline can also accommodate morning appointments at the weekend. Appointments are held at PawPrints, in Worthing. Please contact Caroline directly to book.

Yes. Caroline will attend home visits for an additional call out fee of £50 plus travel expenses. Please contact Caroline directly to request this.

Standard dog and cat microchipping costs £15 per puppy or kitten. Standard dog and cat ultrasounds cost £55 per scan. Please contact Caroline if you have any unusual or bulk requests.

Since 2016, all dogs must be microchipped after they are 8 weeks old. Since 2024, all pet cats must be microchipped before they are 20 weeks old, including house cats. Free living cats with little or no human interaction e.g. farm or feral cats, don’t have to be microchipped but it is still useful to do so.

If your dog or cat is found not to be microchipped, you will usually be given notice to have them microchipped and if they still are not microchipped after this, you could face a fine of £500.

A microchip is a tiny device, roughly the size of a grain of rice, that is inserted under your pet's skin, usually between the shoulder blades. The microchip has a unique 15-digit serial number which can be scanned and matched with your details, held on a database. In this way you can easily be reunited if anything happens to your pet. It’s incredibly important to make sure your details are correct and up to date on the database so that the microchip can be used properly.

An ultrasound scan is a safe, non-invasive way to see real-time images of soft tissue and fluids inside your pet. It is particularly useful for pregnancy scanning and can be done without anaesthesia.

Ultrasound waves are not radiation, as opposed to x-rays, they are very high pitched sound waves which bounce around the body in different ways depending what they bounce off of, to make echoes. The different echoes are put together by the scanning machine to form a picture.

Ultrasound scanning needs to be airtight to the skin to work so your pet may be shaved in the scanning area and gel will be put on the probe to make sure the sound waves go inside the body not bounce off the skin.