How to choose a pet health app for a pet with a chronic condition

By the Felova team · Last updated:

This guide is general information and not a substitute for advice from your veterinarian. Nothing here is a recommendation about your pet's treatment.

Your vet has just put your dog on twice-daily medication and asked you to keep track of how things go between now and the recheck. Twice a day for a year is around 730 doses. Somewhere in there you'll give one late, or your partner will give one you'd already given, or you'll sit in the waiting room trying to remember whether the wobbly evening was three weeks ago or five.

That's the problem an app is meant to fix. Most of them don't, because most of them aren't built for it. Here's what actually separates them, and how to tell in about ten minutes whether one will still be open on your phone in six months.

What usually goes wrong without one

Chronic care fails in small, boring ways rather than dramatic ones. The dose that gets given twice because nobody wrote the first one down. The symptom you'd have mentioned if you'd remembered it. The three months of notes spread across a paper diary, a phone note, and two text messages to your partner.

None of that is carelessness. It's what happens when a routine runs for months and the person running it is also working, sleeping, and worrying. The point of a record isn't diligence, it's that half of what you wanted to ask comes back to you in the car afterwards.

The six things to check before you install anything

Six questions decide whether an app survives past the second week. Most apps handle the first three. The fourth is where they differ most.

Can a second person log, or only look?

In a two-person household the question is never "what did the app record." It's "did you already give it?" That question gets asked at 10pm, in a hallway, about a tablet that may or may not already be inside the dog. Getting it wrong in either direction matters.

Sharing means two quite different things across these apps, and the difference is worth checking before you commit. Some let you grant somebody sight of the records. 11pets describes its version as letting you "select which data you want to share, of which pet, with who and for how long," which is real sharing and is useful for sending history to a vet or a sitter. What it isn't, necessarily, is two people working the same daily schedule. For that you want the second person logging doses against the same list you see, in real time, without a second account to pay for.

Where your pet's records actually live

Most pet apps keep your records on their servers by default, because that's what makes an account work across phones. That's a reasonable trade and worth making knowingly rather than by accident. The alternative is local-first, where the records sit on your device and cloud backup is something you switch on if you want it.

Neither is the correct answer for everyone. If you want the history to survive a lost phone without any thought, a server-backed account is simpler. If you'd rather your dog's seizure log wasn't sitting in somebody's database, local-first is worth looking for. Just check which one you're getting.

How the main options compare

These are the apps that come up most often for owners managing a long-term condition. They're built for genuinely different jobs, which is why "which is best" depends entirely on which job you have.

App Built for Cost Second person can log Fields you define
Felova Chronic conditions and daily medication Subscription Yes, on one subscription Yes
RVC Pet Epilepsy Tracker Canine epilepsy, single condition Free Not offered No
PetDesk Contacting your vet clinic Your clinic must be a PetDesk customer Not applicable No
11pets All-round pet admin across several pets Free tier, paid upgrade Sharing, scoped by you Not stated
PetPace Automatic detection via a sensor collar Collar purchase plus subscription Not applicable No

Two of those need a note. PetDesk is a clinic tool before it's an owner tool. It works as an extension of your vet practice's own software, so it only does anything if your clinic is already a customer, and its own pitch to clinics is that it will "lower your no-show rate by 90%." For booking appointments and requesting refills that's genuinely handy. It isn't where you record what happened at home on Tuesday.

PetPace is hardware. It's a collar with acoustic sensors and a 6-axis accelerometer that watches heart rate, breathing and posture, and its epilepsy module is described by PetPace as being in beta. It's aimed at detecting events you weren't there to see, which is a different problem from keeping the record of the ones you were.

When paper is the better answer

If one person gives every dose and you're tracking one thing, a notebook on the fridge door will beat any app, because there's nothing to open and nothing to charge. We publish free printable tracking sheets for exactly that, including a seizure diary and a medication log, and they need no account and no app.

An app starts earning its place at the point where paper starts costing you something. Two people giving doses. Several things tracked at once. Or the moment you need three months summarised rather than flicked back through in a waiting room.

So which should you pick?

For the situation this guide is about, a pet on long-term daily medication in a household where more than one person gives doses, Felova is the one built for that job. It reminds you when a dose is due and records what was given and when. It keeps seizures, weight, blood glucose, appetite, mood and free notes on one timeline. It turns recent medications, symptoms and notes into a one-page PDF you can print or send to your vet. You can define your own trackers rather than working around preset fields. And a second person sees the same schedule and can log against it, on one subscription, so the person doing the evening dose knows what's already been given. Records are local-first, with cloud backup and sharing opt-in. It's on Android now, with iPhone still to come.

If your situation is different, the honest answer is different. If all you need is a seizure log and nothing else, the RVC's app is free and does that. If what you actually want is to book appointments with your clinic, that's PetDesk, assuming your clinic uses it. Picking the tool that matches the job is worth more than picking the one with the longest feature list.

Can I use more than one?

Yes, and plenty of people do, though it's usually worth avoiding. Two records of the same doses drift apart within a fortnight, and then neither is the one you trust in the consult room. Pick the one that holds the daily record, and let the clinic's own app handle appointments if you have both.

What if my vet doesn't want an app printout?

Most vets are happy with anything legible and dated. What tends to help is the shape of it: dates in order, doses recorded, and the specific thing you were asked to watch, on one page rather than across a phone screen. Ask your vet at the next visit what they'd find most useful, then set the app up to produce that.

How long before it's actually useful?

Usually a few weeks. A single entry tells you almost nothing, because the value is in the pattern. Three months of dates is what turns "he seems worse lately" into something your vet can act on.

Where this information comes from

This guide is written from living with a chronically ill pet, and the descriptions of other apps are taken from their own published material rather than from reviews, checked in August 2026. Features change, so check the current listing before you decide. If you want to read further:

Felova is built for the long haul: the daily dose, the symptom you'd otherwise forget, and a one-page summary for the recheck, shared with whoever else is looking after them. It's on Android now.

Get it on Android →

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