The Future of Petcare

The future of pet health and wellness is now, and there are some exciting things on the horizon! There are lots of new small companies that are popping up. There are a few reasons why this is happening, and one of the main driving factors is the humanization of our beloved companion animals. We’ve seen it happen over and over again, that once something takes a hold in the human space, it inevitably trickles down to our pets, but recently it’s happening quicker and we are seeing more amazing and high quality products hitting the market. We will dive into a couple in this article, but there are a few points that I want to touch on with respect to the future of pet care, and those are at home diagnostics, wearable technology, and precision medicine for animals. 

At home diagnostics

In recent years, we’ve seen the at home diagnostics market boom. It started with DNA testing kits for people. Remember the craze to find out where your DNA is from and what percentages of what nationalities your genes can be traced to? Well, it wasn’t long before we started doing this for animals too. We saw it with companies like Basepaws, who went on SharkTank and showed the world that cats deserved at home DNA testing, so that you could give them better care. We now see companies like our friends over at Innovative Pet Lab, where you can now purchase an at home testing kit for your dog or cat’s stool that will give you stress markers, health and diet indicators and more. It’s pretty remarkable what is available now, and it’s only helping pet parents to track their pets health, and allowing them to meet their animals health head on and help them live healthier lives. 

Wearable Tech

The wearable tech for dogs started out small and has grown to become highly technical and tuned pieces of apparatus that help monitor the key factors that your dog experiences daily such as stress and heart rate. At first, the idea of having a trackable collar for dogs and cats was the big thing. Being able to see where your cat is going on their walks, or how much exercise your dog is getting is now trackable, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

I mean, there are plenty of wearable devices for us humans - Apple watches, FitBits, and even Aura rings; there are plenty to choose from and they all help to track your health and wellness indicators. Companies like our friends at Maeven have a wearable collar device that allows parents to track their pets stress, breathing and more. Another friend of PetPax’s, Pawsitive Touch is looking to build a wearable interactive harness that allows the parent to talk to their pet when they’re stressed and it will also have motion to help sooth stressed out pups.

Precision medicine 

Precision medicine for companion animals is just around the corner and there are companies that are starting to look into this - including PetPax Co! This is where we see the real future of animal health. If you can combine what we’ve talked about in this blog post - from at home diagnostics to tell you what your pet is deficient in and create custom products that meet that individual pet’s needs. We’ve seen a big upturn in research and new products for companion animals in recent years and this is partly due to the humanization of pets, but also that people are content not having children, and are happy to see their pets as their babies. That humanization is what has spurred this surge in animal health alternatives and options, from longevity research so our pets can live longer lives (which is currently being approved by the FDA!) to human grade supplements (aka SupplaMelts!), our companion animals are starting to get a taste of what we are starting to experience for ourselves. We now can have tests done and then peptide cocktails created to help fight aging and disease, so it’s only a matter of time before it starts to become reality for pets - companies like FidoCure are working on genomic sequencing to help treat cancer in dogs, so it’s already begun! 

My final thoughts...

The synergy of all three of these emerging segments of the pet care industry are going to be paramount, in my humble opinion, to the holistic wellness of our companion animals. This is being seen in human medicine and it is starting to appear all over the pet industry. From human grade foods, to supplements, to at home diagnostics and wearable tech, the future for pet health and wellness is now and it’s an exciting time for the industry. We are well on the the way to personalized medicine for our pets, and the future of pet care is now!

- Nathan Ruff-Williams, Co-founder