Tattoo on a Dogs Ear

Started by ashilb
Veterinary Science Graduate Programs from U. of I.
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

Browse articles Compare schools My application plan Read Interview Feedback
Practice for interviews Ask an Advisor
ashilb

ashilb

Full Member
Verified Member
10+ Year Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
So a good friend of mine called me last week asking me If its safe to do a tattoo on a Pit bulls ear... I thought it was really weird at first but then I looked up some articles about it and A LOT of people use to that back in the days.... What do you guys think about?
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
ashilb said:
tattoo for ID...He doesn't want the dog to be injected with a Micro-chip.
Click to expand...

😕 My dog's a rebel and is tatted and pierced (with a microchip)😛

(She's tatted from a spay though)
I don't know that your friend would be as successful finding their dog if it got lost... 👎

I don't know of a centralized database to compare tattoo info.
 
ashilb said:
tattoo for ID...He doesn't want the dog to be injected with a Micro-chip.
Click to expand...

Microchip - way more effective for identification. Personally not a supporter of tattooing animals for identification.
 
ashilb said:
So a good friend of mine called me last week asking me If its safe to do a tattoo on a Pit bulls ear... I thought it was really weird at first but then I looked up some articles about it and A LOT of people use to that back in the days.... What do you guys think about?
Click to expand...

I think it's situational. The reservation I was on last week? Yeah - tattooing might make a lot of sense because there's probably not a chip scanner within 50 miles.

In a typical urban area? Get a chip - people will be running scanners over the dog long before someone notices a tattoo in its ear.

@Katie8: When you said you're "not a fan", I hope you meant purely for animal identification and not as a identification of spay status (not sure what you meant by 'identification'). A tiny splash of tat on the belly done painlessly under anesthesia to prevent an unnecessary future surgery seems like a total win to me for the dog.
 
My golden was tatted. She was a Canine Companion puppy and I guess that's how they did their ID system. I can't think of any reason why it might be preferable over a microchip other than you don't need a scanner to read it and you pretty much can't miss it (we had a cat that was microchipped in on his lower back come in, once - don't know how that happened, luckily the owner knew it was down there or we would have missed it completely), but I can't imagine them doing it in a fashion that would be painful to their pups and it certainly didn't bother her once it had been done.

As for the spay tats - I think they're brilliant, personally! One of our doctors rescued an "intact female," and was doing her pre-spray exam when she noticed a little "s" tattoo. We call it her tramp stamp. 😀 But it saved a lot of time and hassle!
 
LetItSnow said:
I think it's situational. The reservation I was on last week? Yeah - tattooing might make a lot of sense because there's probably not a chip scanner within 50 miles.

In a typical urban area? Get a chip - people will be running scanners over the dog long before someone notices a tattoo in its ear.

@Katie8: When you said you're "not a fan", I hope you meant purely for animal identification and not as a identification of spay status (not sure what you meant by 'identification'). A tiny splash of tat on the belly done painlessly under anesthesia to prevent an unnecessary future surgery seems like a total win to me for the dog.
Click to expand...
👍
 
I'm with hopefulinva.. I have two dogs (hence my profile picture) who were guide dogs in training until they both flunked medically (at least it wasn't my fault, right??!). Try both have tattoos and I never really thought anything about it considering when I got then only days after being tattooed, neither one of them were sensitive or painful in their ear.

Now tattooing for artistic purposes.. That's a completely different story lol
 
How much does it cost to get a microchip for your dog and if I lost my dog how would you track the dog. I know by the microchip but is there something on your phone that gets a signal from the microchip?
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Eldee Ahmad USF said:
How much does it cost to get a microchip for your dog and if I lost my dog how would you track the dog. I know by the microchip but is there something on your phone that gets a signal from the microchip?
Click to expand...

It depends on where you get it done, I suppose. I can't remember how much it costs to microchip around here; we usually toss it in with our spay/neuter procedures.

Once your pup is microchipped you can go online and register the number - connect all of your information to it.

It doesn't emit a signal, but most (probably nearing "all") animal control services have a scanner, so if your dog runs off and is caught by the local kennel, they can scan your pup, get your info, and contact you to let you know they have him.
 
The price of the microchip varies. I'd say it's about 30ish dollars for it to be placed and to set up your account. Nothing gets sent to your phone or anything. Basically, if your dog is turned in to a shelter, vet, etc he will be scanned.

(this is where I may not be 100% accurate) but im pretty sure once the number is scanned, the people at the shelter can call the company (HomeAgain, etc) and then the company will call you. It's not a GPS system though. But it is beneficial if your dog does get out and someone turns him in!!
 
EdinBelle said:
The price of the microchip varies. I'd say it's about 30ish dollars for it to be placed and to set up your account. Nothing gets sent to your phone or anything. Basically, if your dog is turned in to a shelter, vet, etc he will be scanned.

(this is where I may not be 100% accurate) but im pretty sure once the number is scanned, the people at the shelter can call the company (HomeAgain, etc) and then the company will call you. It's not a GPS system though. But it is beneficial if your dog does get out and someone turns him in!!
Click to expand...
In my experience (working 3rd shift at an ER-lots of strays coming in) when a vet hospital calls the microchip company, they give the hospital contact info for the owner and the microchip company calls the owner. No GPS involved.
The small day practice that I work at now charges $45 for a microchip, which includes all registration.
 
3 out of my 4 pets have tattoo identification. Two out of the three cats have ear tattoos because they were from a research colony, and my dog has a tattoo in her inguinal region because apparently that is common for identification of purebred dogs in her breeder's neck of the woods (Calgary, Alberta).

I don't really get the objections to this at all.

edit: all four are microchipped. and everyone has a collar and tag too.
 
hopefulinva said:
And confusion. :laugh:

"But... this is where it should be... Her chart says intact, right? Right!? Do I have the right DOG!?"
Click to expand...

It happens! A few months ago, I was present for a "spay" in which the patient mysteriously had no uterus/ovaries! Her owners had found her somewhere in Mexico and brought her home, and we think she was already spayed when they found her. With no obvious spay scar, it would have been really nice if she had been tatted!
 
LetItSnow said:
@Katie8: When you said you're "not a fan", I hope you meant purely for animal identification and not as a identification of spay status (not sure what you meant by 'identification'). A tiny splash of tat on the belly done painlessly under anesthesia to prevent an unnecessary future surgery seems like a total win to me for the dog.
Click to expand...

I completely understand the benefits of tattooing for spay identification (preferably not a smiley face 😉 ). But getting a tattoo on your dog just to identify that it's yours in the event that it gets lost makes no sense to me. A shelter that picks the dog up will notice it yes and it will be helpful if the owner calls that exact shelter and says hey my dog's got this tat in its ear do you have it? But a shelter is not going to have any information about your dog solely by a tat on it's ear and no way of knowing how to contact you. So for ID in the event your dog is lost, I think microchip is the absolute best way to go.

For added measure and style, try a delightful personalized dog collar! Available in a variety of colors pleasing to you dogs personality 😉 View attachment ImageUploadedBySDN Mobile1339067966.976195.jpg

:laugh: granted your pup doesn't get lost without it!
 
I had a ferret with an ear tattoo. I was told it was to id him as having been "descented".

Also, The shelter I volunteered for used Kelly clamps on the left ear tip of feral cats brought in for spay/neuters to indicate that they were vaccinated and "fixed". This was done while still under anesthesia. It killed the tip of the ear and left the kitty with a distinctive look. That way the people trapping them could identify them in the field without having to handle them.

Just my experience with alternate forms of identification. 😀
 
LetItSnow said:
I think it's situational. The reservation I was on last week? Yeah - tattooing might make a lot of sense because there's probably not a chip scanner within 50 miles.

In a typical urban area? Get a chip - people will be running scanners over the dog long before someone notices a tattoo in its ear.

@Katie8: When you said you're "not a fan", I hope you meant purely for animal identification and not as a identification of spay status (not sure what you meant by 'identification'). A tiny splash of tat on the belly done painlessly under anesthesia to prevent an unnecessary future surgery seems like a total win to me for the dog.
Click to expand...
+1

I have been in clinics where they either A. cut a tiny incision next to the spay incisino and add tattoo ink B. tattoo the ear or C. tattoo the spay incision itself. Personally, I like A the best, and tattooing in general is far preferable to putting the animal under anesthesia again. One clinic just cut notched the ears of stray cats... but the problem is that strays often have notches from fights that are hard to distinguish.

The downside of tattooing in the way the OP is talking about is that the tattoos tend to get blurred. Even when we tattooed a few letters on the ear, it would be hard to see them a few years later. We could tell they'd been fixed because there was ink, but there was no way you could read the initials.

So.... the way that vets tend to tattoo is not conducive to having a phone number or anything clear on there. I guess you might be able to find a vet who would put the animal under and then a tattoo artist. But that seems like a lot of hassle (and liability) when you can just microchip the dog and be done with it.
 
Working German Shepherd Dog people (and maybe other breeds as well) routinely tattoo in the ear. If you find a stray GSD and it's not chipped, check the ears. Most breeders - not talking AKC show breeders, but the ones who do Schutzhund, use a specific series of numbers, and the dog can be traced that way. Example: http://germanshepherddog.com/breed/tattooers.htm
 
The first thing any reputable shelter or vet clinic is going to do when a stray dog comes in is to scan it for a microchip, so a microchip is almost always the best way to go. I have worked in shelters and before we even give the dog or cat a thorough physical exam we check for a microchip as then we can get that animal home.

While a tattoo can be a nice backup piece of identification in the ear or a good way to know whether a female dog is spayed, it is not the best form of ID in this day and age.

Also as far as Pit Bulls go it became pretty common practice when tattoos were the main form of ID for the dogs to be mutilated (ears cut off or the tattoos cut off wherever they were) when the dogs were stolen, so that they could not be identified. Pit Bulls are the on the top of breeds of dogs being stolen, so just something to think about. I would rather my dog not go through that pain on top of the other ****e it will have to endure if it were somehow stolen.
 
Agree that microchipping is very common & effective, but there was a case in PA a few years ago where a woman who ran a shelter was caught removing microchips in dogs she wanted to keep. I know that put a few people on the track of also tattooing as well as chipping.
 
Angelus9 said:
Agree that microchipping is very common & effective, but there was a case in PA a few years ago where a woman who ran a shelter was caught removing microchips in dogs she wanted to keep. I know that put a few people on the track of also tattooing as well as chipping.
Click to expand...

:wtf:

Some people should not be let around animals.
 
A lot of people do use the belly. IMO I think the working dog people use the ears because, well, a lot of these dogs do not appreciate the submission move of rolling over & displaying their bellies for the judge to check their tattoos <lol>.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Katie8 said:
I completely understand the benefits of tattooing for spay identification (preferably not a smiley face 😉 ).
Click to expand...
Dammit. I've been putting my initials next to the incision. Is that so wrong? 😉

Katie8 said:
For added measure and style, try a delightful personalized dog collar! Available in a variety of colors pleasing to you dogs personality
Click to expand...
I'm not sure whether you were joking or not, but seriously, it's amazingly how many people drop dime on the cost of chipping but don't take the time to put a simple tag on their animal's collar with contact info. (I like the personalized collar!)

I lost my Husky once up at the cabin. Guaranteed there's no chip reader within a few bajillion miles. Half a day later, though, I got a call from a nearby fishing lodge owner who found my girl playing with lodge clients along their beachfront. (So like that dog....) I had two dog tags on my Husky - one with our home info and one with our cabin info. Totally paid off.
 
LetItSnow said:
Dammit. I've been putting my initials next to the incision. Is that so wrong? 😉


I'm not sure whether you were joking or not, but seriously, it's amazingly how many people drop dime on the cost of chipping but don't take the time to put a simple tag on their animal's collar with contact info. (I like the personalized collar!)

I lost my Husky once up at the cabin. Guaranteed there's no chip reader within a few bajillion miles. Half a day later, though, I got a call from a nearby fishing lodge owner who found my girl playing with lodge clients along their beachfront. (So like that dog....) I had two dog tags on my Husky - one with our home info and one with our cabin info. Totally paid off.
Click to expand...

Adding some light-heartedness, but you bet your butt I have two personalized collars for my pup with her name and my phone number on it 🙂
 
My dogs have spay tattoos, microchips, and ID tags on their personalized collars lol. My mother-in-law got the dogs the collars for Christmas. They have their names on them and one of our cell numbers. Every vet they see compliments us on their collars. This is the one they each have except one is pink and the other has purple:

9X3Y2SDred.jpg
 
I always push these whenever I have the opportunity, but all of my pets have these tags. I love them, they don't dangle and make a bunch of noise and they have a lifetime readability guarantee and are very well made.

I still don't understand why people object to tattooing.
 
nyanko said:
I always push these whenever I have the opportunity, but all of my pets have these tags. I love them, they don't dangle and make a bunch of noise and they have a lifetime readability guarantee and are very well made.

I still don't understand why people object to tattooing.
Click to expand...

oooo, I like that!
 
Wow, I'm surprised to hear that people still tattoo for ID purposes. I remember when I worked at a vet in the 90's it was common, but once microchips came onto the scene I thought it practically disappeared. I guess not.

I guess I just don't see the utility, unless it was an ID # and a website/phone number, how is it going to help anyone get your dog back to you? Maybe some vets would recognize the ID sequence and know which group the ID belongs to, but that seems like a long shot.
 
I know with service dogs, they tattoo the ear because it's the easiest way to tell each puppy apart!! When they arent physically working in harness, the dogs are in huge indoor runs with about 6-10 dogs per run. They don't wear collars since they all have the ability to wrestle and play most of the time. Since many of those dogs end up being littermates or at least the same breed, somebody's gotta be able to tell them apart!!
 
pigsatuga said:
Also, The shelter I volunteered for used Kelly clamps on the left ear tip of feral cats brought in for spay/neuters to indicate that they were vaccinated and "fixed". This was done while still under anesthesia. It killed the tip of the ear and left the kitty with a distinctive look. That way the people trapping them could identify them in the field without having to handle them.
Click to expand...

I volunteered at a clinic that fixed feral cats. The program was fairly new. The organization wanted them to crop the left ear for ID. The clinic decided against it because the wound could attract flies and maggots in the warm weather. They opted for an ear tattoo instead. They chose the 0 because it contained the most ink.
 
Trematode said:
I volunteered at a clinic that fixed feral cats. The program was fairly new. The organization wanted them to crop the left ear for ID. The clinic decided against it because the wound could attract flies and maggots in the warm weather. They opted for an ear tattoo instead. They chose the 0 because it contained the most ink.
Click to expand...
Is the 0 some kind of universal symbol for spay/neuter? If not, will other vets know what it means?

A stray came in once that someone had adopted. He had his ear clipped, but the lady said he was still spraying and acting like an unfixed tom. The vet I was working with frowned and seemed to know what was going on. He did an ultrasound and found he had a retained testis. Apparently the vet that originally spayed him thought he only had one and never bothered to look if the other one didn't exist or just didn't come down like it should have. I was really surprised he knew right away what was going on. Is this common? I figured it would be fairly rare, but I forgot to ask him at the time.
 
They didn't chose 0 for any specific reason.
They just chose it because it was the "largest tattoo" (it took more ink to make the 0 and thus, the 0 would be more visible on the ear than say an L).
They did inform the organization of this and voiced their conerns. I did not see any other ferals come in, so I am unsure whether they continued.

Also, your reply reminded me of another issue with ear cropping/notching. Cats get into fights all of the time, so how do you know that a cat with a notch on its left ear has actually been fixed?

This organization was the only one in the area at the time.
 
All greyhound pups are tattooed. One ear has their birth month and year and the other ear has their litter identification number. You can use the ear tats to look them up on an online database though, so I guess it's more helpful than a privately done ear tattoo.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
I love those tags you posted, nyanko! Seriously considering getting one for my cat.

We do ear tips for ferals at the spay/neuter clinic I volunteer at and even on the cats that have already had notches or whatnot in their ears from fights, it's still very clear that the tipping has been done. It's such a straight line, right across that would basically never happen so evenly and cleanly from a fight.
 
Honestly, I am ok with ID tatts... in some situations. We have a couple of clients that had the chip # tatted on the dogs. One of them actually got out and was returned because the person who found the dog didn't need a scanner. I personally keep my dogs chip tag on her collar, but ya never know.
 
We learned in my intro to shelter med class that it is standard practice for most TNR programs to clip the left ear when the animal has been sterilized. This allows for quick ID from a distance if the animal is trapped again. It prevents potential stress to the animal because it can be immediately released and increases safety of the TNR workers because that is one less feral cat that needs to be handled unnecessarily. Tattoos and microchips require the worker to handle the animal whereas ear clipping does not.
 
Lissarae06 said:
We learned in my intro to shelter med class that it is standard practice for most TNR programs to clip the left ear when the animal has been sterilized. This allows for quick ID from a distance if the animal is trapped again. It prevents potential stress to the animal because it can be immediately released and increases safety of the TNR workers because that is one less feral cat that needs to be handled unnecessarily. Tattoos and microchips require the worker to handle the animal whereas ear clipping does not.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I've always heard. Even though a belly tattoo would indicate spayed already and prevent unnecessary abdominal surgery, getting to that point for a feral animal is very stressful, between getting trapped, spending the night and next day in the trap, changing locations, being sedated, etc. Being able to avoid that process is important and ear tipping is a standardized way to be able to easily tell from a distance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

GoSpursGo
UPDATE ON VETERINARY FORUM MODERATION
Replies
5
Views
757
supershorty
supershorty
hazysea
Advice on Experience!
Replies
24
Views
3K
Angelo84
A
Mr.Smile12
RVC on Probation (please confirm)
Replies
8
Views
4K
starryradiowaves
starryradiowaves
Mr.Smile12
AAVMC statement on HR 1 BBB (sent to applicants, shared with advisors)
Replies
0
Views
1K
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
K
Thoughts on my chances??
Replies
5
Views
579
Imbridus
I