A Calgary animal health technology company has developed Tably, an app that uses the phone’s camera to tell whether a feline is feeling pain. It looks at ear and head position, eye-narrowing, muzzle tension, and how whiskers change, to detect distress.

A 2019 study published in peer-reviewed journal “Scientific Reports” found that the so-called “feline grimace scale” is a valid and reliable tool for acute pain assessment in cats.

“It helps human cat owners know if their cat is in pain or not,” said Miche Priest, venture lead at tech company Sylvester.ai. “We were able to train a machine using a series of images.”

The app could be beneficial to young veterinarians, said Dr Liz Ruelle of the Wild Rose Cat Clinic in Calgary, where developers trained the algorithm.

“I love working with cats,” she said. “For other colleagues, new grads who maybe have not had quite so much experience, it can be very daunting to know, is your patient in pain?”

An app that learns patterns from images of cat faces can be helpful, but cat owners should also look at their pet’s whole body for clues about their well-being, said Alice Potter from the United Kingdom’s RSPCA.

“Cats that are worried or scared will hold their tail really tight and tense. There’s also just thinking about their behaviour – are they eating, drinking, toileting, sleeping like they usually do?” she said.