Microchipping your dog, does it hurt?

So I had both my Rottweilers at the vet's today to get micro-chipped and was pretty confident all would go pretty smoothly. I had read over the Internet that micro-chipping was similar to a normal shot. Yet, I had to believe everything was far from being as I expected when my Petra was injected with the chip today.

Let me state first of all that Petra is a bit wary of needles. When she gets her yearly shots she will yelp from pain but luckily everything is over in a few seconds and life goes back to normal. Today though, I could not believe my ears and eyes...

Let me say that the needle was a lot thicker than the usual ones. She went on her belly at first and would not show her back. Then finally we flipped her over. He inserted the needle and she acted like crazy. I never heard her scream like that, it was literally hurting my ears. He was unable to insert it the whole way because she was moving like a wild alligator. She also was yelping when he was not even doing anything to her.

Then I held her head and again she screamed, and then suddenly started snapping at the air everywhere in a desperate attempt to be free. When I saw her almost snap at me out of panic, we decided to muzzle her. An assistant took over and held her head still, and she was foaming at the mouth, urinated on the table, screaming like the wildest animal.

Once, done, she was back to normal, wagging her tail but a bit startled. I gave her a treat and everybody was petting her. Later in the car, I could smell her anal gland secretions, something dogs do when they are in a very fearful state of mind...

I am quite sure that today's event must have traumatized her. I really hope there was a way to remove that pain from her. I really never saw her act this way before.

Yet, when it was my male dog's turn he did not even blink. At one point therefore, I thought that she was over exaggertaing...

Then later at home I visited this website that gave an honest straight forward answer here is the quoted paragraph I want to share:

'' Does it hurt?

Yes. As we mentioned, the needle is very large, and no local anesthetic is used. Most small dogs and puppies scream. It can also cause temporary light bleeding at the injection site, which is most visible on light-colored animals. We have peroxide handy to clean this up. It is usually not serious. However, we recommend that puppies and kittens be at least two months old (and weigh at least two pounds in the case of kittens) before subjecting them to this procedure. True, the pain lasts only a couple of seconds, but keeping the animal's well-being in mind, the entire ordeal of being taken to a strange place with strange people and other animals can be stressful, even traumatic for many animals of any size and age. It's always a good idea to let your pet eat either an herbal remedy or vet-prescribed sedative at least a couple of hours before going to the vet or other "strange" (to the pet) location, like our microchipping clinic.''

So for those micro-chipping their pets I want to give a heads up. There are chances your dog may be just like my dog Kaiser and there are chances your dog may react like my dog Petra. Micro-chipping is not like a walk in the park as many websites portray. The needle indeed is much more larger than a normal needle for shots.