Microchips and Vetting

[The Bouncing Bog Trotter]

I watched a friend's horse being vetted on Friday as she was unable to be there and I was shocked that the vet didn't check the microchip of the horse against the passport. I asked if he was going to and he said that it isn't a standard part of the vetting process and he didn't have a chip reader with him. He said that he'd verified the horse against the markings on passport and was satisfied it was the same horse (despite the passport colour being bay and the horse now being a dark grey). The passport states that the horse has been DNA tested and microchipped so I was shocked that he did a visual examination rather than an electronic chip check.

When I had my horse vetted earlier this year the first thing the vet checked was her chip, and that the chip number matched that given on the passport.

What do the BEVA guidelines say about vetting and chip-checking and what are others' views on this? Makes a bit of a mockery of having to chip a horse doesn't it?

 

[jessicahulme]

You should expect that the chip is checked at the start of the vetting (in the bit when thepassport etc is checked) - routine part of any vetting

 

[landyandy]

when i have had horses vetted in the past, the first thing the vet did was check for the microchip.
sounds odd that they didn't check

 

[ibot]

when my horse was vetted his micro chip was deffo checked.

 

[Gucci_b]

When my horse was vetted, my X vet did'nt even check to see if their was a Microchip.... it was another vet that picked it up a year later.