Three steps, and the app starts working around your cat. Most people skip the second one, and it is the one that matters most.
1Add your cat — about a minute
Four short screens: species and age → sex, neutering, weight and body shape → health conditions (optional) → name and photo.
Get the weight and neutering right. Daily calorie needs are worked out from them, and nearly every number in the app — "has she eaten enough today?" — is measured against that figure.
When the weight changes, update it in Menu → My page → Pets → Weight & calories and the calorie target is recalculated.
More than one cat? Add each one. Switch cats at the top of the care screen and everything below changes to match.
2Choose their health conditions — the important one
This is not paperwork. It decides what the app shows you for your cat.
Choose kidney disease and you get a daily phosphorus target, plus a Care companion tab that works out the stage from lab values.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) brings heart-specific targets and the companion tab; diabetes checks food for low carbohydrate and enough protein; pancreatitis checks fat.
Next-meal suggestions, "similar cats" in the feed, Cheri's chat and reports all take the condition into account. Leave it empty and all of them assume a healthy cat.
If the vet gave you a stage (for example, kidney disease stage 2) or a creatinine value, add it too.
Skipped it? Add it any time in Menu → My page → Pets → Health conditions. Set the "apply from" date and the new targets start that day; earlier meals keep the targets they had.
3Log food and medication once
Go to Care → Smart Care → Food entry, search for the food by name and log it. Not there? Use Add a product (you earn 10P for it).
After the first time it gets quick: tap Care at the bottom, then press and hold Meals to log each cat's last serving again in one go.
For medication, open Manage cabinet under Medication & supplements and set each drug's dose and how often. After that, tap a drug once to mark it given, or hold it for statistics, editing and the schedule.
Why bother? The daily care score and the calorie and nutrient targets are calculated from what was eaten. A day with no entries has no score.
The five tabs at the bottom are the app’s drawers. Almost everything lives in one of them.
1The bottom tabs
Home — the shortcut to today: "Open integrated care", "Care records at a glance" (7 days of calories, weight and doses), quick-log buttons and a suggested read.
Search — the food explorer: find, compare and add products. (Chapter 4)
Care — opens a menu: meals, meds, water, weight, status, labs, costs, diary and Smart Care. Most of them jump straight to the matching part of Smart Care. (Chapter 3)
Feed — other owners’ records: what cats with the same condition eat (meal browsing) and which meds and supplements they use (care browsing).
Contents — the condition bibles (kidney, HCM, urinary, diabetes), the kidney medication and supplement compendium, the cat food safety guide and columns. The bible for your cat’s condition comes first.
2The buttons at the top
Chat with Cheri — the AI assistant that answers from your records. (Chapter 8)
Bell — notifications, plus your point balance and history.
Menu (≡) — every section, and log out.
Person icon — My page: your cats’ details and conditions, language, notifications and account settings.
3How meal browsing works
Unlock a cat and you can see its last 7 days of records for 7 days. It costs 5P; your first one is free.
Cats with the same condition, then cats of a similar age, come first, each with the reason shown.
When someone unlocks your cat, 3P comes to you. To stop sharing, turn off My page → Notifications & sharing → Allow anonymous meal sharing.
Where each day’s records come together. Four tabs: Daily care · Diary · Care companion (when your cat has a condition) · Meal planner.
1At the top
The date and Pet information ⓘ (your daily calorie target). Tap the photo to switch to the next cat; hold it for the list.
The 7-day strip shows each day’s calories. Tap a day to go to it.
2The daily care score
It is not a health diagnosis. It shows how close food and water came to the targets.
Calories 30 + nutrition 40 + water 30 = 100. Meeting a target gives full marks and going over is not penalised. Condition targets come first.
Tap an item for a 7, 30 or 90-day dot chart of how often the target was met, and which foods it came from today.
3Food entry
Search a food and enter grams; it collects by product under "Eaten today".
Same as yesterday — pick from yesterday’s meals and log them in one go. Anything already logged at that hour is left out.
Choose the next meal — switch on the foods you have at home (from the last 90 days) and it suggests what to give next, showing what that portion does to calories and phosphorus. The pantry is shared by all your cats. Add the opening date for dry food and it tells you when six weeks have passed.
4Medication & supplements
Set up drugs and schedules in Manage cabinet; then tap a drug to mark it given, or hold it for statistics, editing and the schedule. Drugs given only when needed go under "As needed (PRN)".
5Status entry
Stool (a 1–7 score, from constipated to diarrhoea), urine, vomiting, weight, breathing rate, water, subcutaneous fluids, blood pressure and notes. On busy days one tap on Normal toilet today is enough.
Water is split three ways: drank by itself / mixed into food / syringe-fed. Whether a cat drinks less on its own is an important signal, so it is kept apart. The app remembers your last choice.
Some conditions add items: blood glucose for diabetes (the app never suggests insulin doses) and "Today’s gut condition" for IBD or lymphoma.
6Our cat’s O/X
Record small, cat-specific habits — greeting you at the door, purring — once a day as O or X. Up to 8 per cat.
When you create one, say whether O or X is the good sign. You get 30 days of dots, and a heads-up when the bad side runs three days in a row or jumps this week.
Why bother? Cats hide illness. Small habits often change before lab values do.
7Expenses · Meal planner
Care expenses — log vet and food costs by date and see totals.
Meal planner — combine foods, cans, ingredients and supplements, check the nutrient balance, and apply a saved plan to today.
The Search tab is the food explorer, built so products can be compared on the same basis.
1Finding food
Search by name or brand, or use the presets: kidney stage 1–2, 3 or 4, low phosphorus, high protein, low carb, wet, verified.
Detailed filters: kidney stage, ingredients to include or exclude, nutrient grades (low/medium/high), phosphorus per protein, verified only, and products your cat liked. The default order is lowest phosphorus first.
2Reading a product page
To compare dry and wet food, use "Same calories (1,000 kcal)". Cats eat to their calorie needs, so what comes with the same calories is what your cat actually takes in.
Three bases: as fed / dry matter / same calories. The high, medium and low grades are per 1,000 kcal.
Phosphorus is shown in mg/1000 kcal. "Label" is the printed value, "estimate" is calculated from the ingredients. Calories carry a "manufacturer / estimate" badge and ME or GE.
The ingredient analysis also estimates the share of animal protein.
3Verification badges
Verified by us — name, brand, label values and source checked by the team. AI verified — checked by AI against official sources. Neither is a quality or safety guarantee.
Product data ⓘ shows whether the numbers are the maker’s typical analysis or the guaranteed minimums and maximums, and how much evidence is on file.
4Comparing
Add up to two products with Compare to see them side by side per 1,000 kcal, with shared ingredients.
5Adding a product · reporting a mistake
Use Add a product: link, photo and nutrients. You get +10P straight away and it becomes searchable for everyone. AI can fill it in from the link. Duplicates or products that do not exist lose the 10P.
If something is wrong, tap Different information? Request a fix in Product data, and send what differs with evidence — a photo of the back of the pack is fastest. You get the result as a notification.
Upload a report in Care → Labs and AI turns it into a table: blood, urine, heart and abdominal ultrasound, in any clinic format or language.
1Uploading
+ Add test → a photo or PDF (up to 20 MB, multi-page is fine) or pasted text → Read the original → check and save.
Earlier results printed on the same sheet are not saved; upload each day’s report separately.
You can also type results in with Manual entry.
Before saving, check the date, values, units and reference ranges against the original once. Those thirty seconds protect every chart that follows.
2Limits and points
AI analysis: 2 a month free, 10 with PLUS. It only counts when you save; cancelling after reading costs nothing.
Reports more than 90 days old are always free — a good way to load your history.
After that, 2P per extra analysis (up to 20 a month).
3Reading results
To do — what this test means now, most urgent first (talk about it / keep an eye on it / good), plus when to test next (2–4 weeks, 4–8 weeks, 3–6 months). It follows IRIS and ACVIM standards and the report’s ranges, not AI.
Summary — latest vs previous, and a trend chart per item.
Full table — one column per test date, with filters such as "Out of range only" or "Kidney-related only".
4Originals · editing · sharing
Originals opens the files you uploaded right in the app, and lets you attach more later.
Tap a test to edit, delete or create a share link — anyone with the link can view it without logging in, handy for the vet.
A tab that appears in Smart Care once a condition is registered. It gathers the markers that matter for that condition and rates each one: good, keep an eye on it, or talk about it.
1What each one tracks
Kidney — an automatic IRIS reference stage (the worse of creatinine and SDMA; a vet-recorded stage wins). 14 markers: creatinine, SDMA, BUN, urea, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, anaemia (HCT), white cells, proteinuria (UPC), blood pressure, urine pH, metabolic acidosis (HCO3) and stones.
Heart (HCM) — the stage comes from the vet’s echo, shown once you record it. Resting breathing rate (target under 30), NT-proBNP, left atrium size (LA/Ao), wall thickness, blood pressure, thyroid (T4), creatinine, potassium, weight and heart events.
Diabetes — glucose, fructosamine, weight, food, water and urine. Gut (IBD, lymphoma) — a weekly home gut score from energy, appetite, vomiting, stool and weight (lower is better) and an 8-week trend. There is also a pancreas page.
2Where the values come from
Blood tests fill in automatically. Things not on a lab report — blood pressure, UPC, urine pH, stones, breathing rate, heart events — go in with Enter value.
Trends mark when medication changed. That shows timing, not cause.
The reference stage is calculated from a single measurement. One high value does not set the stage — look for the same stage repeating over time.
Everyone who looks after the cat sees and logs the same records. You can see who did what, and doses are not given twice.
1Inviting
At the top of Smart Care, Care together with family → Create invite code. The 6-character code works for 48 hours and only once. Send it with Send invite, or copy the code.
The invite link fills the code in. Choose the name shown next to your records (Mum, Dad…) and tap Join.
Up to 4 people including the owner. Each person can be in one family.
2What family members can do
Log meals and treats, tick off doses, record vomiting, stool and weight, view and add lab tests, write in the diary, see reports and the care companion. Only the owner edits the cat’s details, deletes or manages the family.
With more than one carer, each record shows who made it.
Tick a dose someone already ticked and you see "This dose is already checked", with who and when. For insulin it adds a low-glucose warning.
If one family member has PLUS, everyone does. AI allowances are shared.
Members can leave and owners can remove members at any time; records stay.
Cheri is the app’s AI researcher. It answers from your cat’s records, not general cat facts.
1Chat with Cheri
Open it from Chat with Cheri at the top. It reads the profile and conditions, 30 days of meals, 14 days of status records, medication, weight and lab results.
5 a day free, 30 with PLUS. After that, 1P buys 3 more. Shared with family.
2Diary replies
Write in the Diary tab and Cheri replies. 1 a day free (3 with PLUS), then 1P each. Asking again for the same entry costs nothing.
Diary entries and Daily care notes are the same thing, so they show in both places.
3Health notes
Tap Health note in the chat for a weekly summary of the last 7 days: a score, an overview and what to watch. 1 a month free, 10 with PLUS, then 5P each.
Getting good answers The more you record, the more specific the answers. A few days of meals and status entries makes a big difference.
Your records, summarised on one page — especially useful before a vet visit.
Care report — "View care report" under the score: food, nutrition and weight in a table. Free.
Diet review — "Get a diet review": Cheri reviews 7 or 30 days with charts (overall verdict, calories, protein, phosphorus, water, daily charts, what went well, what to watch, comparison with the previous period). 30P for 7 days, 60P for 30; your first 7-day review is free, and PLUS includes one free 30-day review a month. Reopening the same period is free, and failed reviews are refunded.
Vet report — "Print vet report" in the care companion. Choose 30 days, 90 days or since the last test: pet details, reference stage, summary, current meds, markers, the last 6 tests and your questions for the visit. Free. The app cannot print, so copy the link and print or save as PDF from a browser.
The lab share link (chapter 5) and health notes (chapter 8) work well for the vet too.
Tarot card — a fun one on Home: 12 questions, one card that matches your cat. First draw per cat is free; redrawing costs 5P.
Recording never costs points. Meals, meds, status and manual lab entry are all free.
1Earning
Watch an ad for 1P (20 a day) or buy 100P — in the latest app under My page → Get points.
Add a product: +10P (chapter 4).
Invite a friend — when a friend signs up with your code and logs meals on 3 days within 14 days, you get 20P and they get 10P (up to 10 friends a month). My page → Invite friends
Meal browsing — 3P each time someone unlocks your cat.
2Spending
Cheri chat 1P for 3 · diary reply 1P · health note 5P · extra lab analysis 2P · product auto-fill or palatability analysis 1P (all only after the free allowance)
Free points are used before bought ones. See your balance and history under the bell at the top.
3PLUS
100P = 30 days, added on to any time you have left. One PLUS member covers the whole family.
Bigger AI allowances (chat 30 a day, diary replies 3 a day, lab analysis 10 a month, health notes 10 a month, product auto-fill 50 a month), no banner ads in the app, and a free 30-day diet review every month.
Almost always this means you signed in a different way than before (for example Apple instead of Google), which creates a new, empty account. Log out and sign in with your original method. If that does not work, contact us with your sign-up email and login method.
2The screen is blank or will not load
Tap Try again. On Android, update Android System WebView and Chrome in the Play Store and make sure the app is up to date. If it keeps happening, Contact us on that screen opens an email with your device details filled in.
3Language, units and notifications
Language and weight unit: My page → Account settings → Edit profile
Push notifications and meal sharing: My page → Notifications & sharing
4Deleting my account
My page → Account settings → Account → Delete account hides your account; signing in again restores it. To have your records erased completely, email support@catlabapp.com from your sign-up address.
5Contact
support@catlabapp.com · weekdays 10:00–18:00 (Korea time), or My page → Contact CatLab.
