Veterinarians throughout the United Kingdom will soon be able to take a dog's temperature by scanning its microchip. Digital Angel, a maker of pet identification microchips, announced last week that it has shipped 50,000 of its new Bio-Thermo chips to a distributor in the UK.

The microchips not only are able to read the body temperature of an animal, but they also contain identification information too. Thus not only can you protect your pets from becoming lost, but your vet can use it to read body temperature.

Last November, Digital Angel shipped 25,000 of its new chips to a distributor in Japan. The chips were initially tested in the United Kingdom back in 2003.