Identifying an old tatoo??

I have been doing much research into identifying my horses tattoo and trying to figure out who he really is. I happened to have our male Siamese (Putty) curled up beside me while I was pondering about the horses tattoo and remembered that Putty has a tattoo on his ear!

Thirteen years ago we bought our female Siamese (Tao). We had her as an only cat, as we had an unpredictable rescued Golden Retriever at the time. Tao could keep the dog in line, but we didn't feel comfortable bringing a kitten into the mix.

When Tao was 2-years-old (so 11-years ago?) we followed up on an ad for a 2-year-old male Siamese that needed a new home ASAP. The owners bred Pit Bulls and the cat would go out of his way to tease the stud dog. The owners didn't want anything to happen to the cat, hence putting him up for sale.

This worked in our favour, since the daring kitty (who was named Putty) was used to a slightly agressive dog and thrived with the slightly unpredictable Golden Retriever.

When we got Putty, they gave us a copy of his current vaccinations and a bill of sale and sent us on our way. I don't think that any of us noticed the tattoo until some months later -- the tattoo has always been very light and sort of blended in with his ear.

So ... approximate 13-year-old Siamese cat. What letters and/or digits am I looking for here?? (Like with the horses, a JC registered Thoroughbred will have a letter that represents the year that he was born and than four digits.)

How do the feline associations do it? I want an idea of what I'm looking for, before I pin Putty down again and peel his ear back to read the tattoo ;)

I'm curious to know how old he actually is. That has sort of been forgotten over the years :headslap: I know, I know, how could we forget that ... !!

Also wondering whether a blacklight will make the tattoo show up more clearly? (Again, I know that works for the horses tattoos ...!?)

Thanks! :)

First you need to start with where you got the cat (assuming the cat has stayed in the same province/state up until you got him), Black River is that where you bought him? Are you in Black River MI, WI or NB?

If you are in New Brunswick you can contact the New Brunswick Veterinary Medical Association http://www.nbvma-amvnb.ca/main_e.htm regarding how the tattoos were written 13 years ago. The BCVMA has this info on their site but I can't find it on the NBVMA site or some of the others for that matter.

Keep in mind every province/state may have their own way of assigning combinations & some have recently changed due to running out of combos. You may also find duplicate tattoo information if the cat had been moved out of the original province/state where it was done. Example the same tattoo could be found in 2 different provinces.

Here in BC they have recently changed from Letters-Numbers to Numbers-Letters. The way it was done 17 years ago was 3 Letters- (amount depended on how many animals done that year) Numbers The first 2 letters designated the vet clinic the third letter designated the year & the number identifies which animal it is. Example my :rip::cat: Mischief was tattooed in 1990 hers was **Y5 - ** for ****** Vet Clinic Y was the year code for 1990 and she was #5 done that year

In BC they have now changed it to numbers first to identify the individual animal then a 3 digit letter code for the clinic and a 4th letter code which designates the year. Example: 123 AAF V - this means 123 is that particular animal AAF is the code for the Vancouver Feline Hospital and V is the year code for 2008

So when you speak to someone regarding obtaining the information be sure to state the code information you are looking for was done approx 13 years ago.

Not sure about the black light :shrug: though some tattoos may tend to fade over the years or be partially obscured by darker pigmentation that may appear later in life - like my 16 year old :cat: Duffy her's is nearly impossible to read now :shrug:

Thanks growler!

The owner lived near Collingwood, Ontario (we live outside of Orillia, Ontario)

Would it be the Ontario Vet Medical Assc then? I'm just checking out their website ...

Yes you would be looking at the Ontario Vet Medical Assoc. then :)

I took a quick look @ their site couldn't find thier tattoo code info, if you still can't find it with a more detailed search you can contact (http://www.ovma.org/contact.html) them to ask - just remember to mention you want code info for 13 years ago ;)

Your welcome & Let me know how your search turns out :)