Is she in pain? Tably can tell you, and remotely, even your vet.

Sylvester.ai, which uses AI to improve animal health outcomes, has created Tably, an open beta app that “a cat parent” can download and better understand their pet’s health and mood. Tably is an AI-based monitoring tool that allows cat-lovers and their veterinarians to monitor cats remotely and painlessly. (Daily Sabah)

Tably uses a smartphone’s camera to detect a feline’s health by capturing her facial expressions.

How it works

Here’s a little-known fact: a 2019 study found that a “feline grimace scale” could accurately be used to assess pain (or otherwise) in cats.

Tably looks at a cat’s ear and head position, eye-narrowing, muzzle tension, and how whiskers change through the phone camera and uses AI to detect if the creature is in pain or good health.

Miche Priest, Sylvester.ai’s venture lead, said they trained the Tably software using machine learning and a series of images of cats’ expressions taken at the Wild Rose Cat Clinic in Calgary.

While experienced veterinarians can quickly tell whether a feline is out of sorts, it is difficult for younger animal doctors. In these cases, an app like Tably can be a very useful pointer.

However, according to Alice Potter from British animal charity the RSPCA, owners and vets should also look at other tell-tale signs.

“Cats that are worried or scared will hold that tail really tight and tense to them,” she recommends. “And then aside from that, there’s also just thinking about their behavior in terms of are they eating, drinking, using the cat box, sleeping like they usually do?”

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Images credit: Sylvester.ai