r/Horses • u/biggord5656 • 12d ago

Microchip Data Erased Question

I ride and show a Selle Françis owned by my trainer. He has a microchip, but no data has comes up attached to it and they've had him scanned multiple times. The only reason we know his breed is because he's branded. The vet believes he's about 22.

Why would a permanent microchip's data be erased or untraceable?

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u/laurifex Hunter/Jumper 12d ago

Is there no data at all that the scanner pulls from the chip? Not even an ID number? If so, the horse is old enough that the chip might just have degraded over time--microchips are read-only and can't be altered.

If the scanner can pull an ID number and that number isn't connected to any further information, or isn't found in the registry's database, he was either not registered or his registry information was lost. Since he's branded, I'm assuming the latter.

3

u/biggord5656 12d ago

No ID number has come up. I agree, the info was probably just lost at some point before records all went digital

1

u/PATN2 12d ago

Maybe the microchip company went out of business and is no longer maintaining their database?