The Royal Veterinary College has announced a four-year collaboration with Felcana, an intelligent pet care start-up based in London, to support the continued research into pet traits and behaviours.

This partnership will enable the two organisations to combine their expertise in a range of exciting pet wearable health projects and enhance the levels of data related to tracking pet behaviours, habits and activities. The initiative is intended to result in an improvement in the welfare of animals in the future.

The collaboration will pool expertise at the RVC, along with the world-leading facilities of the Structure and Motion Laboratory, with the state-of-the-art artificial intelligence that Felcana has to offer. It is expected that the integration of these products and skills will help to predict, simplify and treat over 90% of health issues facing dogs and cats.

Felcana’s Digital Pet Health Platform uses a bespoke modelling process which revolutionises how owners monitor their dog and cat health. Through complex scientific algorithms, which can interpret a pet’s behavioural patterns such as drinking, eating and sleeping, owners are now able to track their pets needs through their smart phones. This technology is hoped to provide effective relief to conditions, such as arthritis, diabetes and kidney failure, at an earlier stage to minimise the pain for the animal.

In parallel to the RVC announcement, Felcana is launching a fundraising campaign on leading equity crowdfunding platform, Seedrs, to raise £150,000. This campaign will help support the continued development and rollout of the Digital Pet Health Platform and goes live on Monday 10th September 2018. Please find more information at: https://www.seedrs.com/

Richard Piercy, Professor of Comparative Neuromuscular Disease at the RVC, said:

“We are very excited about this new collaboration with Felcana. We are confident that this new venture will improve prognoses made by vets in the future because pet owners will be more active in responding to changes in their pet's behaviours. The data will also aid vets in identifying health conditions earlier and will therefore improve the welfare of animals altogether."

Monica Daley, Senior Lecturer in Locomotor Biomechanics at the RVC, said:

“This is an exciting opportunity to leverage our expertise in comparative animal biomechanics and behaviour to develop new algorithms to measure a pet’s activity and behaviour patterns over time. Such approaches have enormous potential to improve pet welfare, allowing owners and clinicians to make informed decisions about care and treatment.”

Dr. James Andrews, Founder and CEO of Felcana, said:

“Digital advancements in the pet care industry have been lagging behind those in human healthcare; vets are often reliant on the abilities of observant pet owners to spot subtle changes in behaviours and habits. This exciting collaboration is therefore essential to improving innovative veterinary technology that will lead to more accurate diagnoses.”