Monitor your pet’s health with a collar? Yes, not one but two companies have now developed a collar that monitors vital signs in your pet like heart rate and breathing, running a fever and it can even tell you if she’s hurting. In others words, all the things you wish you could figure out so you can step in to help.
If you have a pet who has a medical condition that needs to be monitored, this type of collar will allow you to do that remotely and give you some peace of mind that she can be left home alone.
Here’s the info on these revolutionary pet products.
The Companies
The companies that developed and produced these vital sign monitors are PetPace out of Massachusetts and Voyce based in Northern Virginia.
PetPace
This company has designed a smart collar that syncs with your smart phone using an app that monitors your cat’s or dog’s vital signs. It tracks things like temperature, movement, positions, activity and heart rate and here’s an incredible feature that is gaining popularity: You can then share this information with your vet so he gets real time statistics especially when it counts most.
Do you have a small cat? Or maybe a Great Dane? No worries. PetPace has the prefect size collar for all your pets.
The temperature sensor helps you see signs of fever early so you can prevent things like heat stroke or hypothermia which could endanger your pet’s life. The pulse meter allows you to see irregularities in heart rate which can be critical if your pet has recently had surgery.
PetPace Smart Collar lets your dog talk to you! from PetPace on Vimeo.
What if you have a dog with asthma? PetPace will be perfect for you because you’ll be able to see if she is having an asthma attack by looking at how she’s breathing.
This monitor even has a setting for calories to help maintain weight on overweight animals and prevent the health problems that come with obesity.
The PetPace app is available for download in the App Store for iPhones or in Google Play for Android. The collar is $149.95 plus a monthly subscription fee of $14.95.
Voyce
Voyce came out the spring after PetPace did and performs in a similar fashion. The significant difference in the two products is seen in the price. Voyce is $199 up front but has a smaller monthly subscription fee at $9.95.
Besides resting heart and respiratory rates, the Voyce monitor measures your pet’s quality of rest which can be a very important vital to record.
The Voyce monitor gives you access to the Voyce Wellness Management Center so you can be a proactive pet parent in comparing current vital statistics to your dog’s baseline statistics and getting that information to your vet quickly.
As of this post, Voyce is available only for dogs but can accommodate small, medium and large breeds. These dog collars have monitoring capability on a smart phone as well as a tablet and computer.
Battery Life
Each of the collars have limitations with battery life. Depending on how much vital information is measured and the frequency with which it’s measured, batteries can last from a couple of days to 8 weeks.
For older pets and pets with medical issues, these smart collars can save the day. You will no longer ask what you could have done differently to save a pet’s life or wonder why you didn’t see a medical condition sooner.
Take a look at either the PetPace or Voyce monitor to see which one fits you and your pet best.
Reference links: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/collars-monitor-pets-pain-problems-33479216
Image: Courtesy of PetPace