This app will tell you if your cat is happy

Cat owners who like to take pictures of furry friends now have a new excuse to take a photo with their smartphone: it may actually be helpful for cats.

Sylvester.ai, an animal health technology company in Calgary, Alberta, has developed an app called Tablely that uses the phone’s camera to determine whether a cat is in pain.

The app looks at ear and head position, narrowed eyes, tight muzzle, and how the beard changes to detect if there is pain. A study published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports in 2019 found that the so-called “cat face scale” or FGS is an effective and reliable tool for assessing acute pain in cats.

Miche Priest, head of venture capital at Sylvester.ai, said: “It can help human cat owners know if their cat is in pain.” “We can use machine learning and a series of images to train the machine.”

The app can help young veterinarians, said Dr. Liz Ruelle of the Calgary Wild Rose Cat Clinic, where the developers trained the algorithms.

“I like working with cats and I have always grown up with cats,” she said. “For other colleagues, new graduates, they may not have so much experience, know-are your patients suffering?”

Alice Potter of RSPCA, a British animal charity, said that an app that learns patterns from images of cats’ faces may be helpful, but cat owners should also look at the pet’s entire body, including the tail. Learn about their health.

“Worried or scared cats will hold their tails tightly and make them nervous. In addition, they will also consider their behavior, such as whether they eat, drink, go to the bathroom, and sleep as usual?”