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Have you ever panicked when you noticed that your pets were a bit off but you couldn’t tell why? That feeling inspired Eugene Siu Cheuk-wing and her brother Oscar Siu Chak-lam to start Petalife, an app for owners to track the health of their cats and dogs.
Launched in 2023, the Hong Kong tech start-up enables owners to build a digital log of their pets’ well-being by uploading photos of their stool, urine or vomit.
In 2015, the siblings were shocked to find out that their beloved dog, Oreo, had cancer – they only discovered the illness when it was already critical.
But Eugene said she learned later that minor symptoms in cancer’s early stages could be observed: they could be as small as “suddenly not eating much [or] suddenly being less active”.
“But for these very small things, actually, if the owner is not really around for 24 hours or is not very experienced, they will not notice,” said Eugene, 30, the chief executive officer of Petalife.
Inspired by the sudden loss they faced, the duo considered how other people might need a clear, accessible way to notice pets’ subtle health issues.
Health reports based on stool images
Petalife’s app, which has about 10,000 users, is designed to help pet owners and vets monitor an animal’s health and spot risk signals.
When Petalife detects something unusual, it alerts users and suggests seeing a vet if there are risks. The company said its app had an overall accuracy rate of about 93 per cent, but it stressed that Petalife is not a medical diagnostic tool and is meant to support, not replace, professional vet care.
For stool analysis, it uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate a health assessment based on the Bristol Stool Scale – a medical guide that classifies faeces based on shape and consistency.
Based on the records input by owners, an AI chatbot gives advice.
“The AI chatbot may ask some questions – for example, about what [the pet] has eaten in the past 24 hours – to make the owner recall if there was anything special,” Eugene said.
She shared how a user panicked over what looked like blood in his dog’s stool, but the app identified the colour as orange, not red. The chatbot then prompted the owner to recall what he had fed his pet, tracing it to a carrot mixed with steak.
The founders think Petalife is also useful for vets as it stores stool records they can reference for diagnosis.
“We specifically found veterinarians to help us tailor … [the records] to be most convenient or most suitable for them to look at,” Eugene said.
How the app’s results were vetted
The siblings began developing their idea in 2022 through local start-up competitions, where they built networks with vets and got feedback from industry experts.
They collaborated with veterinary teams and other partners across Hong Kong, Britain and the Greater Bay Area to collect about 100,000 sets of raw data to train their AI model.
They used diverse datasets covering cats and dogs of different breeds, ages and body sizes. From the start, vets labelled the data and ensured the models aligned with clinical standards. Today, veterinary experts continue to conduct independent validations and verify the AI’s precision.
The idea of analysing stool came from Eugene’s early career in skincare marketing, where AI was used to assess human skin health. But since skin scans are less practical for furry animals, the duo changed their focus to researching how stool consistency can indicate pet health.
Eugene manages the business operations, while Oscar drives the app’s technical development.
Oscar, 27, Petalife’s chief technology officer, studied surveying at Polytechnic University of Hong Kong but found his true passion through a school start-up competition during his first year.
Rooted in his love for pets, he designed a smart feeder that mixed water with pet food to create a smooth paste.
He won funding to build a prototype and learn about product manufacturing. After graduating, Oscar built Petalife’s AI model himself, and he continues learning new technical skills to improve the application.
Both siblings agree that real-world experience is essential for figuring out your passion.
“Studying and actually working are two different things,” Oscar said. “The newest technology cannot be learned in university … Actually, I think [you should] look at more things outside school.”
Future plans
To make pet health tracking effortless, Petalife is trying to merge its technology into public spaces and homes.
Following the July launch of Hong Kong’s scheme allowing dogs in licensed food premises, Eugene saw growing interest from commercial spaces looking to build pet-friendly environments. For example, they have partnered with local malls to offer prizes for people who use Petalife’s app.
The team also plans to automate pet health monitoring with a camera designed to sit in a cat’s litter box, sending information to the app to analyse the animal’s habits.
“We know [Petalife] cannot replace any veterinarian to do any diagnosis,” Eugene said. “Instead, before a disease is diagnosed, we hope to know earlier whether those pets are suffering … so that owners can help them.”
