Petnostics – If you could check your pet’s health at home, would you?

Urinalysis cup & free app detects pet health issues

Note: This is a sponsored post.

Petnostics is an affordable product that allows dog and cat owners to monitor their pets’ health at home between vet visits.

It’s easy. You simply collect a urine sample using the $10 Petnostics urinalysis cup, screw the lid on and scan it using the free Petnostics app on your iPhone (also coming soon for Android users!).

It’s a way to potentially save your pet’s life by catching a disease or issue early on, even before symptoms appear, according to Petnostics.com.

My dog and two cats are seniors, so I was especially interested in the opportunity to try the product with them. I received a free sample for each pet. I tested my dog Ace and my cat Beamer. Both came back as “healthy.”

You may think it’s difficult to collect urine from a cat, but I just used a spoon for Beamer, as suggested here. He could’ve cared less. My second cat, Scout, is another story (you’re doing what with that spoon?!) so I haven’t tested him yet. The company recommends hydrophobic litter, which is designed to keep the urine above the litter so you can collect it easily.

More about the Petnostics app

Petnostics is the first product released from Scanostics, which was founded in 2013 by Stephen Chen.

According to Chen, the company will determine if your dog or cat potentially has any number of common ailments or diseases such as:

• diabetes
• dehydration
• a kidney stone
• a urinary tract infection

He said Petnostics is meant to be used as a supplement to regular vet visits so any possible issues can be detected earlier and therefore treated at an earlier stage.

“Catching and treating an issue earlier on not only leads to better health outcomes, but it’s also cheaper in terms of veterinary costs,” he said.

Since the Petnostics urinalysis cup is just $10, I like the idea of checking my pets every six months or so. Perhaps Petnostics could even offer some sort of subscription program where the test automatically arrives in the mail regularly. According to its web site, it recommends pet owners check their pets monthly.

How Petnostics works

The patented, urine-collection cup has colorimetric chemical strips on the lid that change colors when used, according to Petnostics.com. Once a sample is collected (wear the glove!), you screw the lid on, flip over the cup and then return it to upright position. Once you launch the app, it asks you to wait 60 seconds, and then scan.

I tried the app on both the iPad and iPhone, and it worked so much better on the iPhone. I couldn’t get it to scan properly on the iPad because my hands were too shaky.

What does the app check?

The Petnostics app checks the following parameters, according to Chen:

From those parameters, Petnostics can determine if a pet potentially has certain diseases or ailments, he said. Results are shown instantly.

“Petnostics is a proactive way to practice preventative healthcare with your pets by identifying possible issues earlier on,” Chen said.

Some of the benefits to Petnostics:

1. It will encourage some pet owners to take pets to the vet more often.

2. It can identify early warning signs of potential diseases and save you money overall.

3. It’s less expensive than a urinalysis at the vet (this will cost you a minimum of $50, especially when you factor in the exam fee, etc.)

4. Less stress for the pet.

How you can win a free Petnostics cup to test your pet’s health

*The winners have been notified.

We’re giving away a free urinalysis cup to two readers of ThatMutt.com.

There are two opportunities to win:

Opportunity #1: Leave a comment on this post saying why you’d like to try the product for your dog or cat. I’ll choose one winner at random on Friday. *Congrats, Rebekah!

Opportunity #2: All newsletter subscribers will have a separate opportunity to win. You can subscribe to my weekly newsletter below by entering your email address. *Congrats to Kristi and Luca!

What do you think about the Petnostics app? Is this something you would use for your pets?