Frequently asked questions

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The AI Assistant offers three main features:

• Ask AI: Ask questions about your pet's health data (e.g. trends, appetite, medications). The AI uses your logged check-ins, RRR, bloodwork, and other data to give contextual answers.

• Bloodwork Importer: Automatic entry of bloodwork results by uploading your pet's bloodwork.

• Bloodwork Analysis: Get a comprehensive analysis of your pet's bloodwork results following any new bloodwork entry.

Availability and how many requests you can make depend on your subscription plan. If you hit your limit, you'll see a message and can try again after the reset period (e.g. next day) or upgrade your plan.

Daily check-ins are automatically classified as Good, Concerning, or Bad based on a comprehensive evaluation of all rated categories:

Good: The pattern across what you rated looks overall stable—eating, energy, cough, digestion, and (if you rated them) drinking, peeing, and behavior aren’t pointing at an urgent downturn. A good day is when, together, your answers describe a mostly normal day.

Bad: The day hits strong warning patterns—think “not eating,” “very low energy together with poor intake or worse cough,” serious stool/vomiting issues, very abnormal drinking or urination, or multiple categories at the worst end. A bad day is when any single serious pattern shows up or several areas are clearly off.

Concerning: You’ve entered enough to rate the day, but it doesn’t clearly land as all-good or bad—often a “keep a close eye” day.

Manual Override: You can always manually override the automatic rating if you feel it doesn't reflect your pet's actual day.

V-Care Paws is a comprehensive web application designed specifically for pet parents managing pets with Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Built with love and inspired by Vicky, a sweet Shih-Tzu with CHF, it provides tools to track vital health metrics, medications, bloodwork results, and daily symptoms.

The app helps you spot correlations between treatments and symptoms, generate reports for your veterinarian, and maintain a complete health history for your pet.

You can start with a free plan that includes core tracking: pets, daily check-ins, RRR, weight, medications, supplements, bloodwork, vet visits, medical conditions. Subscription plans add features such as AI Assistant, Reports and Community Statistics among other analytical tools.

Yes! With our subscription plans you can add and track multiple pets under a single account. Each pet has its own profile with separate health records, medications, and tracking history. The dashboard and timeline can be filtered by individual pet.

We take data security seriously. All passwords are encrypted using industry-standard hashing, and all data transmissions are protected. Your health data is only accessible through your secure account.

V-Care Paws is specifically designed for pets with:

• Congestive Heart Failure (CHF): Features include RRR (Resting Respiratory Rate) tracking, cough monitoring, medication management, and fluid retention monitoring.
• Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD): Features include bloodwork tracking (BUN, Creatinine, etc.), appetite monitoring, weight tracking, and medication management.

While designed for these conditions, the app can be useful for tracking any pet's general health.

Community Statistics shows anonymous, aggregated insights from other users (e.g. Medical Conditions, Age at Diagnosis, Diet at Diagnosis, or Medication and Supplement usage). It can help you see how your pet compares to others in similar situations. This feature is available on certain subscription plans; if you don't see it, check the Subscription page.

In Memoriam is a dedicated space for pets who have passed away. When you set a date of passing for a pet (via the pet profile or the Mark as Deceased flow), that pet is moved to In Memoriam. When you're ready, you can choose to permanently delete their data.

The refill tracking feature helps you never run out of medications:

• When adding a medication, enter the number of units (tablets, capsules, etc.) in your bottle
• Enter the date you started the bottle
• The system calculates how many days until you run out based on the dosage schedule
• A reminder appears on the dashboard and medication page when you have ~3 weeks of supply remaining

You can update refill information at any time by editing the medication or using the refill tracking button on the medication view page.

The Quality of Life Assessment is a comprehensive questionnaire designed to help you evaluate your pet's overall well-being. It consists of 30 statements across 10 categories that cover all aspects of your pet's daily life.

The 10 categories are:

• Comfort & Pain - Is your pet comfortable and pain-free?
• Appetite & Eating - How is your pet's interest in food?
• Hydration - Is your pet drinking adequately?
• Energy & Engagement - Does your pet have energy for daily activities?
• Joy & Emotional Well-Being - Does your pet still experience happiness?
• Breathing & Respiratory Ease - Is breathing comfortable?
• Mobility & Movement - Can your pet move around well?
• Bathroom Comfort - Are bathroom habits comfortable?
• Daily Function & Independence - Can your pet manage daily needs?
• Overall Well-Being - How is your pet doing overall?

This assessment can be valuable for tracking changes over time and for discussions with your veterinarian about your pet's care.

RRR (Resting Respiratory Rate) is the number of breaths your pet takes per minute while at rest or sleeping. It's measured in breaths per minute (BPM).

Why it matters for CHF: RRR is the #1 early warning indicator for Congestive Heart Failure complications. An increasing RRR often indicates fluid buildup in the lungs before other symptoms appear.

Normal ranges:

• Dogs: Typically 15-30 breaths per minute at rest
• A consistent RRR above 40 often warrants veterinary attention

Best practices:

• Measure when your pet is truly at rest or asleep
• Count at the same time each day for consistency
• Know your pet's normal baseline RRR
• Contact your vet if RRR increases significantly above baseline

Your account is assigned to a plan (tier) that determines which features you can access, how many pets you can have at once, and, for AI features, how many requests you get per day, week, or month. Upon registering, the Subscription page (in the menu) shows available plans, compares features, and highlights your current plan.

Absolutely — you’re always in full control of your pet’s information. You can choose exactly what to share, how much to share, and how you want to share it. Whether you prefer a downloadable PDF or an interactive shareable link, you decide what’s included: summaries, graphs, specific data types, or just the essentials.
Interactive links also include view tracking, so you’ll know whether the person you shared it with was able to access the report. And if you ever change your mind, you can revoke access to any shared link instantly.

The health timeline provides a unified view of all health events:

• View range: Use quick filters (1 week, 1 month, 3 months) or custom date ranges
• Event types: Each event type has a unique color - check-ins (green/yellow/red), medications (blue), bloodwork (purple), etc.
• Hover for details: Click or tap on events to see more information
• Custom events: Add ad-hoc events like diet changes or symptoms

The timeline helps you spot correlations - for example, seeing if appetite decreased after a medication change.