Sereno: A Dedicated Health Record for Cats Living with Long-Term Illness
When a cat receives a chronic diagnosis—whether it is Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), diabetes, hyperthyroidism, or Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)—the initial vet consultation takes an afternoon. But what follows is a year or more of daily care at home, where owners navigate fluid sessions, changing medication dosages, and fluctuating symptoms.
To help cat parents manage this long-term reality, independent Italian developer Ivan Salgarello created Sereno—a dedicated pet health record app purpose-built for chronically ill animals.
Built for the Day After Diagnosis
Unlike general pet apps that add basic health-tracking tabs as an afterthought, Sereno assumes three core facts: the illness will not go away, the treatment will evolve over time, and the person observing daily subtle changes is at home, not in the consulting room.
Asked why he built it, Salgarello gives a simple answer:
“I built it because I saw how hard it is to look after a sick animal.”
To ensure the app solves genuine daily struggles, Salgarello built it piece-by-piece using direct feedback from veterinary professionals and support group moderators—the forum admins who answer owners' questions every day for free. Many of Sereno’s most practical features exist only because community admins asked for them:
✔ A litter-box log tailored for cats managing kidney disease.
✔ Food consistency notes inside the feeding diary.
✔ A specialised regurgitation tracker (recording what comes back up) built for megaoesophagus management, suggested by Donna Challender of the Upright Canine Brigade.
✔ Dedicated tracking for gastrointestinal lymphoma (arriving in the next app update).
Condition-Specific Customisation
Sereno supports 17 named conditions alongside a free-text option. When an owner adds their cat and diagnosis, the app automatically activates only the tools relevant to that specific illness, keeping the interface clean and uncluttered:
- Kidney Disease: Enables subcutaneous fluid tracking, blood-value panels, and litter-box records.
- Hyperthyroidism: Triggers specialised thyroid bloodwork panels (such as T4, Free T4, and TSH).
- Diabetes: Activates blood glucose curves, insulin reminders, and injection-site logs.
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| The Sereno app handles detailed daily logs like glucose curves (left) while maintaining an instant, offline emergency summary for veterinary visits (right). |
Crucially, Sereno does not tell owners what numbers mean or use artificial intelligence to speculate on diagnoses. It simply provides an organised space to record data. Which tests to run and what results signify remain entirely between the owner and their veterinarian.
Key Features for Everyday Management
✔ Custom Bloodwork & Vet Ranges: Rather than using generic averages, owners enter their own vet’s reference ranges. Values are flagged as out-of-range only against your specific clinic’s benchmarks.
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| The Sereno app generates clean, exportable PDF health summaries for vet appointments (left) alongside real-time tracking graphs for critical lab values like Creatinine (right). |
✔ Family Sharing with Safety Nets: Multiple caregivers can sync in real time to mark doses. If a medication is not marked as given within 30 minutes of its scheduled time, Sereno alerts everyone to prevent missed or doubled doses.
Availability & Pricing
Sereno is independent, ad-free, and contains no pet-food sponsorships. It is available on iOS and Android in English, Italian, and Spanish, with payments processed natively in Australian Dollars through the App Store and Google Play.
- Free Plan: 1 pet, 2 active medications, 1 PDF report per month.
- Plus Plan: Approx. $7.50 AUD/month ($4.99 USD) or $60 AUD/year ($39.99 USD)—saving users 33% when paying annually. Covers up to 3 pets, 10 medications, 5 reports/month, plus family sharing.
- Pro Plan: Approx. $15 AUD/month ($9.99 USD) or $120 AUD/year ($79.99 USD)—saving users 33% when paying annually. Covers up to 10 pets, unlimited reports, blood-value panels, and glucose curves.
(Note: Local AUD amounts are approximate conversion estimates; exact store prices will reflect Apple/Google's localised AUD tier rates upon checkout.)
