I got a wild-Google-hair and was researching pet tattoos as means of identifying lost pets. Mine are all tagged and microchipped, but I read a story involving a tattoo’d dog today so figured I’d read up on it.
ANYWAY, one of the tattoo registry companies (who sends you what looks like a disposable tattoo gun in the mail! Wonder if they get requests from prisons, haha) claims that the process is pain-free and quick.
I have a tattoo and it was not pain-free. Is this company lying? Anyone tattoo’d their own dog (legally) and for identification purposes? I can’t imagine it’s just like writing on them with a sharpie- it’s gotta sting!
i would not do that. Let your vet do it under ants. if you really think it is necessary. YES tattoos hurt.
it is NOT PAIN FREE!! no permanent ink ever is.
i second having a vet do it under anesthesia - THEN it is painfree… when you wake up, it might be irritated…
To clarify, I am not thinking of doing this. The fact that the manufacturer claimed it was pain free kinda blew my mind.
Our vet does it by request.
My now 9 year old was tattoed with AKC and the registration #, on the white inside of her belly/thigh, when she was spayed.
No pain under anesthesia there.
It is still very easy to read.
That is customary for many show dogs, along with microchipping.
I have one who was tattooed as a puppy. I promptly put a microchip in her. By a year of age, you couldn’t read her tattoo and with her hair (it’s on the inside of her thigh) you wouldn’t see it without looking.
Before there was microchipping, I had all my dogs and cats tattooed at the time of their spaying/altering. The reason being that dogs were stolen out of yards in Atlanta and sold to the VA/Emory for med students to cut open the chests and practice surgery on. So all my dogs and cats had the tattoo on their abdomen(s): Reward Return Me to GA DLN (and my then license # which any LEO could get on NCIC/GCIC). So the dogs and cats were under and with pain meds later for the surgery. Therefore no pain from the tattooing. BTW, the hair on a cat will grown back and cover the tattoo. On dogs, no problem as that area is mainly hairless. But I figured if someone flipped one over and shaved him/her for surgery, they’d see the tattoo. Never had one stolen as all slept in my bed while I was at work, thank God. Last one is now 21 yrs of age. I switched to microchipping as so many dogs down here, dropped off to be pts when military people were deployed, have been reunited with their owners all over the USA because the pounds down here routinely scan animals for chips. One dog had disappeared in NYC years ago, and was reunited with his owners up there.
My horses are chipped. Vets who use “Home Again” chipping company use the chip that can be read by most scanners.
Before microchips, tattoo clinics were frequently held by kennel clubs as fund raisers, often at dog shows. I participated in many. Yes, its not painless but not so painful as to require full anesthesia. You just need someone to restrain the dog. Most dogs just lay there, a few did object strenuously.
I have retired racing Greyhounds.
Both ears are tattooed when they are puppies. One of my hounds is almost 10 and his tattoo is still very legible.
Yes, it probably hurts, but it is done very quickly… all numbers/letters are pre-loaded into the tattoo gun and it is over quickly.
