do microchips really cause cancer?!

dramagirl601

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hi there
well Zack is almost full grown and has learned to jump the wall that leads to te street!
her has allready jumped several tiems and neigbors are begginng to drop im off at our house.
I want to gt him microchip but my dad said he read that it causes cancer.?!
I dont want a collar brcause it couldget caugfht and he could um sufocatte.

is there anything wronmg with letting him roam the streets?
I told my dad he could eat something bad,get lost in someonmes house and not get, out,get run over etc...But my dad does not beleivde me.

any help guys?
 

sadieandziggy

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Ziggy is a really small cat so I've bought her a kitten collar. They expand pretty big though. It's fully elasticated so's that if it get caught on something, it will stretch enough to come right over her head. She's microchipped too though. IMO the risk of cancer is the same as us using a computer or a cell phone.
 

4meezers3kids

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Have your dad talk to the local Emergency Vet.

Keeping them in is really safest. Not just cars, but fights leading to bacterial and viral infections.

If it is not the cat he is concerned about ... waht if YOUR CAT were responsible for a carload of kids swerving, rolling the car and ... ?
 

ferocity302

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I just lost a kitty a couple days ago that we let outside. She usually only stayed on our property but once in a while the neighbors across the street or next to us and their kids would call her over to pet and play with her.

She was killed on OUR PROPERTY by Pit Bull dogs running the street.

My answer is keep them in or make some kind of cat run area if you can. I'm just upset that we have our cat run framing up and have not had a chance to finish it. The rest of our kitties are not allowed out until it's done.
 

tallulah

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I have three cats who are all indoor as one of my neighbours has nails and spikes along his walls, obviously not keen on cats, how about trying a snap lock collar which can break open easily.
 

katachtig

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The studies linking microchips to cancer are recent studies in lab animals like mice and rat. It also was a small percentage. Microchips have been used over the last 15 years in dogs and cats and there hasn't been any large scale reports of cancer in these animals.

From what I understand, the risk of losing your cat is greater than the risk of him getting cancer. But you may want to discuss this with your vet.

If he goes outdoors, I would also recommend a collar and tags. This will help differentiate him from strays and someone won't need to contact a vet or shelter to get his info.
 

saya

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try cat fencing if you want to let kitty out. cats will only jump up on something if it looks sturdy (that's the theory anyway) and this stuff doesn't.

I live in a quiet neighborhood so I let my oldest cat roam where she pleases. The kittens are still too small IMO. the youngest are microchipped and they all have snap safety collars, Beatrix just recently lost hers though.

I think it depends on where you live on whether or not you should let your kitties roam. Bea roams but always stays pretty close to home, close enough to hear me when I call...
 

sharky

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As with any foreign object the body may reject it ... Cancer is merely an overgrowth of cells... Zoey has a breakaway collar and I am debating the risk of tattooing and microchipping her ... she was a feral and has the ear cut so a tattoo is also needed
 

urbantigers

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It will take considerably more research than those studies on mice to convince me that microchips may cause cancer. Microchipping is very popular over here and I've not heard of any such problems with the chips. Both of my cats are microchipped and until some more convincing research comes along to indicate a relationship between chipping and cancer, I'll continue to get any future cats chipped. There are risks with a lot of things but for me the benefits of microchipping outweigh the potential risks. I'll rethink if and when there is a study showing that microchipped cats have a higher incidence of cancer than unchipped cats.
 

cloud_shade

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Originally Posted by Dramagirl601

My dad still wont believe me ahhh


he sent me this link...waht do u guys have to say about it?


http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h...2bdR1YdCo8OgXA

I hope someone can help me convince him
Make sure he reads this paragraph:

"Caveats accompanied the findings. "Blind leaps from the detection of tumors to the prediction of human health risk should be avoided," one study cautioned. Also, because none of the studies had a control group of animals that did not get chips, the normal rate of tumors cannot be determined and compared to the rate with chips implanted."

Some lines of mice and rats get tumors simply from having the injection with or without any object or substance behind it. Since there were no controls, there is no way to know whether the injection alone caused the tumor (since some rats and mice are prone to them) or if the chip had any bearing on the tumors' generation. Regardless, that would only show how rats and mice react. Of the millions of cats world wide that have microchips, there would be a lot more discussion about it on vet groups if cats were developing similar tumors.
 

arlyn

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Lab mice and rats ALL come from a very limited gene pool.
Your average pet rat/mouse is more likely to get tumors than a wild rat/mouse.
Why?
Because they share the same limited gene pool.
They are more or less genetically engineered to get tumors, sad as that may be.

Microchips have been in use for well over 20 years in the livestock and equine fields.
You can bet that if someone's prize bull, or multimillion dollar race horses were getting cancer from them, it would have made news.
 

saya

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Have and talk with your vet AND your dad together about the microchips.

If anything, the vet should be able to reason with him.
 

luvmybowbies

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My kitten had the microchip implanted in him about a two months ago only because we bought him from an animal store and I guess thats what they do.
The only way to really know 100% if it causes cancer is to do what ddcats said and come back here in 10-15 years and see. I hope it doesnt cause cancer but we really never know.
 
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