How do I know my cat needs a vet urgently?

Do not wait until morning if the cat is breathing with an open mouth or with the belly, cannot pass urine and cries in the tray, has not eaten for over a day, has seizures, pale or yellow gums, a body temperature below normal, a tense swollen abdomen, or an injury. In a male cat, being unable to urinate is a matter of hours. Everything else the reading ranks honestly: what can be watched at home and what should be seen this week. Urgent breathing is covered in cat open-mouth breathing .

My cat looks fine but something is off — is it worth checking?

It is, and this is the feline peculiarity. Cats have evolved to hide illness: by the time they start hiding and refusing food, a condition may have been running for months. Early signs are almost always mundane — drinking more, sleeping somewhere new, no longer jumping onto the windowsill, a change in the size of clumps in the tray. The reading is built to pull meaning out of exactly such details and say what to check.

How is this different from decoding my cat's lab tests?

Different input. Here you describe what you see and get a picture of possible causes — which is what you need when there is no report yet. Once tests are done, they are read by pet lab test decoding against feline reference ranges, and an ultrasound or X-ray report by pet imaging decoding . The natural route: first understand what is going on and what to test, then decode the result.

How much does it cost and do I need to register?

The reading costs 300 RUB — a one-time card payment with no subscription and no recurring charges; the receipt goes to your email. No sign-up needed. The current price, including any promotions, is shown in the form before you start.

Can I attach a photo?

Yes, and it helps. What works well is anything visible from the outside: an eye, an ear, the gums and their colour, skin and bald patches, a wound, the contents of the tray, the posture while breathing. A photo is supporting evidence, never decisive: nobody diagnoses from a picture of skin, but an image often reorders the list of explanations. If a shot is unusable, the reading says so plainly.

What if my pet is a rabbit, hamster or tortoise rather than a cat?

The reading works for them too — the complaint is read against the biology of whichever species you name. In small pets this matters especially: blood is rarely drawn from them, and the owner's account is often the only data that exists at all. What is checked and when is covered in our guide to illness in rabbits, tortoises and rodents . Dogs have their own door — dog symptoms .

Can ChatGPT read my cat's symptoms?

Partly: a general chatbot will name common causes, but it routinely blends feline physiology with human and canine ones, does not structure urgency and does not say what to actually check. Here the reading works from the biology of the species and the age, flags emergency signs separately, names the tests and scans that fit your picture, and says plainly where the data is thin. Neither path replaces an exam: a cat has to be seen, touched and listened to.

Cat symptoms: what could be going on

A cat will not tell you what hurts — and that is the hard part. Cats also hide illness: they look fine right up to the point where it is late, so small shifts in appetite, thirst, the litter tray and behaviour matter more in cats than in most animals. Describe in ordinary words what you notice and how long it has been going on — in a few minutes the AI reasons through the causes that genuinely explain this picture, flags separately the signs that mean a vet today, and names the tests or scan that would clarify things. The price is a one-time 300 RUB, no subscription, no sign-up. This is an informational reading, not a diagnosis: only a veterinarian treats and prescribes.

paid decodings completed
5–9 minaverage decoding time

What the cat symptom reading gives you

Describe it in your own words
No medical terms needed. Write what is happening: stopped eating, started hiding, sneezing for three days, using the tray more often, losing weight on the same food. Add age, whether neutered, indoor or outdoor, what you feed and what changed in recent weeks — the fuller the picture, the sharper the reading.
Likely causes read against feline biology
The same sign means different things in a cat and a dog. The reading lists explanations that genuinely fit a cat of this age and lifestyle, ranked honestly: what is most likely, what is also possible, what is less likely but too early to rule out.
How urgent this is
States where hours matter are flagged separately: open-mouth breathing, inability to pass urine, refusing food for over a day, seizures, pale or yellow gums, a body temperature below normal. For those the reading says plainly — go to the clinic now, not tomorrow.
Which tests would clarify
For the picture you describe, the reading names what is usually checked in a similar situation: complete blood count and blood chemistry, urinalysis, thyroid hormones in an older cat. The report you get back from the clinic can then be decoded here too.
What each scan would show
Where the question is about structure rather than numbers, the reading says what an abdominal ultrasound, a chest X-ray or a heart echo would actually add and why a vet might order it.
Kittens, adults and senior cats
The same sign reads differently at four months and at fourteen years: in kittens infections and parasites come first, in seniors it is kidneys, thyroid, diabetes and joints. Age is always taken into account.

Guides to common cat symptoms

Each guide covers one sign: what it can mean, when it is urgent, what not to do at home, and which tests or scans would clarify the picture.

Cat with a watery eyefrom herpesvirus to a foreign body — and when hours save the eye
Cat sneezinga one-off sneeze, chronic rhinitis, and what discharge colour means
Constipation in catshow long you can wait and why megacolon starts unnoticed
Cat coughing and wheezingasthma, a hairball or the heart — the three most confused
Blood in a cat's urinecystitis, stones and urethral blockage — an emergency in males
Cat droolingteeth, nausea, poisoning or something stuck in the mouth
Cat open-mouth breathingalmost always an emergency — why, and what to do on the way
Cat meowing constantlybehaviour, pain, thyroid or cognitive change
Cat losing furovergrooming, allergy, parasites, hormones — where to look
Cat scratchingwhat to do when there are no fleas, and why cats shake their heads
Lethargic catthe least specific sign of all — where to start checking
Cat losing weighteating as usual yet losing weight — thyroid, diabetes, kidneys
Cat limpinginjury, arthritis or thromboembolism — how they are told apart
Cat drinking a lotkidneys, diabetes and thyroid — what to measure and how
Cat not eatinghow long a cat can fast before the liver is at risk
Cat vomiting and diarrhoeaincluding white foam — when it is no longer just grass

Other pets: rabbits, rodents, birds, reptiles, horses

The reading is not tied to cats: a complaint is read against the biology of whichever species you name. For small pets this is often the only practical way to work things out — blood is rarely drawn from them, so your account becomes the primary data.

Rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas
In herbivorous rodents and lagomorphs, gut stasis develops over hours rather than days: a rabbit that has stopped eating and passing droppings is an emergency, not a "let us wait until tomorrow". Teeth matter separately: dental problems cause drooling, refusal of hard food and weight loss with the appetite apparently intact.
Hamsters, rats, mice
In small rodents the picture is sparser and the time shorter: lethargy, a ruffled coat, squinting eyes, a wet tail or laboured breathing already mean go now. Rats have their own common story — chronic respiratory infection with wheezing and clicking as they breathe.
Parrots and other birds
A bird hides illness more thoroughly than any mammal: fluffed up, sitting on the cage floor, breathing with the beak ajar or bobbing its tail with each breath — that is already a late stage. Changes in droppings and their colour are often the first readable signal.
Tortoises and reptiles
In reptiles almost everything traces back to husbandry: temperature, ultraviolet light, humidity and diet. Refusing food, a soft shell, swollen eyelids, wheezing and bubbles at the nostrils usually point not to "an infection" in the abstract but to a specific husbandry fault — which is exactly what the reading asks about.
Horses
In horses colic and lameness come first, and both move fast. It helps to describe what changed in work, appetite, the volume of droppings and behaviour in the stable — the picture is built from that. How labs and feeding connect is covered in our guide to the equine blood test.

How it works

Three steps to a clear result

Upload your data
Take a photo of a test or scan, upload a PDF — or just describe your symptoms. Several files at once, no sign-up.
AI analyses everything
It reads test values and findings on images and checks them against reference ranges. For tests from different dates, it tracks the trend.
A clear result
What’s normal, what’s off and what it means — in plain language, with advice on which doctor to see.

How this compares to a vet, chatbots and forums

	LabReadAI	Vet visit	General chatbot	Search and forums
Price	300 RUB one-time, no subscription	typically a paid appointment	free or subscription	free
Time	a few minutes	booking and a trip with the carrier	instant	hours on owners' forums
Input	your account in ordinary words; a photo may be added	an exam, palpation, temperature, auscultation	a question typed into a chat, unstructured	a symptom in a search box
You get	likely causes read against feline biology, an urgency call and the tests to bring up	a diagnosis and treatment — something only a veterinarian may provide	general causes, often by human standards	from "nothing serious" to the worst case in adjacent tabs
Limits	an informational reference, not a diagnosis; the animal is not examined	takes time, booking and stress for the cat	does not separate feline from canine physiology	other people's cases, often another age and another species

The reading does not replace a veterinarian and does not cancel the visit: it helps you understand what is happening, how urgent it is and what to bring to the clinic. Diagnosis and treatment happen only in person.

Useful materials

Related articles and parameters — normal ranges, interpretation and causes of abnormalities.

Ask AI about health

FAQ

Common questions about cat symptoms

Do not wait until morning if the cat is breathing with an open mouth or with the belly, cannot pass urine and cries in the tray, has not eaten for over a day, has seizures, pale or yellow gums, a body temperature below normal, a tense swollen abdomen, or an injury. In a male cat, being unable to urinate is a matter of hours. Everything else the reading ranks honestly: what can be watched at home and what should be seen this week. Urgent breathing is covered in cat open-mouth breathing.
It is, and this is the feline peculiarity. Cats have evolved to hide illness: by the time they start hiding and refusing food, a condition may have been running for months. Early signs are almost always mundane — drinking more, sleeping somewhere new, no longer jumping onto the windowsill, a change in the size of clumps in the tray. The reading is built to pull meaning out of exactly such details and say what to check.
Different input. Here you describe what you see and get a picture of possible causes — which is what you need when there is no report yet. Once tests are done, they are read by pet lab test decoding against feline reference ranges, and an ultrasound or X-ray report by pet imaging decoding. The natural route: first understand what is going on and what to test, then decode the result.
The reading costs 300 RUB — a one-time card payment with no subscription and no recurring charges; the receipt goes to your email. No sign-up needed. The current price, including any promotions, is shown in the form before you start.
Yes, and it helps. What works well is anything visible from the outside: an eye, an ear, the gums and their colour, skin and bald patches, a wound, the contents of the tray, the posture while breathing. A photo is supporting evidence, never decisive: nobody diagnoses from a picture of skin, but an image often reorders the list of explanations. If a shot is unusable, the reading says so plainly.
The reading works for them too — the complaint is read against the biology of whichever species you name. In small pets this matters especially: blood is rarely drawn from them, and the owner's account is often the only data that exists at all. What is checked and when is covered in our guide to illness in rabbits, tortoises and rodents. Dogs have their own door — dog symptoms.
Partly: a general chatbot will name common causes, but it routinely blends feline physiology with human and canine ones, does not structure urgency and does not say what to actually check. Here the reading works from the biology of the species and the age, flags emergency signs separately, names the tests and scans that fit your picture, and says plainly where the data is thin. Neither path replaces an exam: a cat has to be seen, touched and listened to.

Online decoding