Our collies were microchipped before they came to live with us -- but our current vet hasn't ever been able to locate the chips with their scanner, so that sure wouldn't do much good. Kathy, I agree that a GPS tracker would be great -- we also live in an area with large areas of woods and such, and, as you said, that would allow a pet to be found under almost any circumstances. Not knowing is really difficult...
Ric, have you ever used Sulfadene for hot spots? Quite a few years back our husky had a bad one on her foot, and she wasn't very amenable to being "treated," especially when she was in any kind of pain or discomfort... we got various things from the vet to try, antibiotics, etc. which didn't do much; then my brother-in-law told me he always used Sulfadene on his hunting dog for things like that so I gave it a try and it worked great. Almost would have thought it was a coincidence and the thing was just going away by itself or something, but I've also used it on one of the collies for a similar sore, also with good results. I think I bought it at Walmart, if you want to look for some (it's a yellow liquid in a relatively small bottle).
