Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We adopted our Boston terrier/pug mix, Ruby, about 6 months ago. She is 3 years old. We noticed a tattoo on her tummy, near where her spay scar is. One part of the tattoo looks like a plus sign, with a circle on top of it. I've never seen anything like it. Any ideas what this is? Thanks!
Thanks for replying! Yes, it does look sort of like that. I had a feeling that's what it was, but I don't understand why a tattoo would be necessary. She's obviously a girl since there is no penis present. I wonder if puppy mills use tattoos?! We don't know Ruby's history since she was a rescue...
My guess is as good as yours. Hopefully someone else can provide some insight.
Honestly, a tattoo seems like a lot of work... it takes a lot of time to tattoo anything... especially for something that can easily be taken care of with a collar.
many spay/neuter clinics do a tattoo after spay/neuter to indicate the dog has been surgically sterilized...
scars fade and if a spay has been done right it can be incredibly hard to tell if the dog has been spayed or not, so many times a dog or cat is given a little tattoo so that in the future should anything happen and the animal end up back in rescue, found as a stray ect the shelter/vet staff can eaisly tell the dog is spayed and they dont have to redo the surgery...i cant tell you how many times when working at the shelter we got dogs in, no idea if they were sayed or not, and we had 2 options, ultrasound or cutting them open to see if they had been done already, since its low cost ltrasound wasnt an option, about 25% of dogs put under and cut open for a spay surgery were already spayed...waste of time, money and alot of stress on the dog.
the tattoo prevents this.
its also not like a human tattoo, its small its 1 color and its not "inticate" or detailed, its done with a pen like device rather than a tattoo gun usually and literally takes nothing more than a few seconds (just like drawing on a peice of paper)
its VERY common.
mills dont mark, it would be too costly, but some breedrs do tattoo as well however these tattoos are typicaly numbers not symbols and are for identification purpose. the mark your describing is the very common symbol of "this dog has been spayed"
Interesting...I use to tatoo my dogs with their AKC numbers! But never seen this..... tho Foxy explanation makes sence! In MD there is a group that catches Feral cats & S/N & snips off a corner of their ear to signify the cats been fixed. This group releases the cat after about a week.
many spay/neuter clinics do a tattoo after spay/neuter to indicate the dog has been surgically sterilized...
scars fade and if a spay has been done right it can be incredibly hard to tell if the dog has been spayed or not, so many times a dog or cat is given a little tattoo so that in the future should anything happen and the animal end up back in rescue, found as a stray ect the shelter/vet staff can eaisly tell the dog is spayed and they dont have to redo the surgery...i cant tell you how many times when working at the shelter we got dogs in, no idea if they were sayed or not, and we had 2 options, ultrasound or cutting them open to see if they had been done already, since its low cost ltrasound wasnt an option, about 25% of dogs put under and cut open for a spay surgery were already spayed...waste of time, money and alot of stress on the dog.
the tattoo prevents this.
its also not like a human tattoo, its small its 1 color and its not "inticate" or detailed, its done with a pen like device rather than a tattoo gun usually and literally takes nothing more than a few seconds (just like drawing on a peice of paper)
its VERY common.
mills dont mark, it would be too costly, but some breedrs do tattoo as well however these tattoos are typicaly numbers not symbols and are for identification purpose. the mark your describing is the very common symbol of "this dog has been spayed"
Thank you so much! That makes a lot of sense. I was just curious since I had never seen this before. I appreciate everyone's responses!
The shelters here put a smiley face tattoo on the belly of the spayed female that way if they ever end up in rescue again and little is known about them they will know they are spayed! Chaos is jealous as most of the girls at the dog park have the smiley face on their tummy she doesn't as my vet did her spay.
I volunteered at a spay/neuter clinic. When dogs are spayed, they receive a tattoo to indicate such.
My dog has a green tattoo, but it's not a symbol, it's just a line.
Agreed, the spay and neuter clinics around here tattoo the females to indicate that they have been spayed. Around here it's a green line, but I have heard of the symbol you are inquiring about.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I wonder if puppy mills use tattoos?! We don't know Ruby's history since she was a rescue...
