Forget about human health, the word’s out that there’s just as much cash to be made out of animal well-being, especially when the critters happen to be soft, furry and ever so cuddly. No not wombats, we’re talking about household pets like dogs and cats.

Petnostics is a brand new smartphone based system which promises to help you track your little pet’s health with the push of a button. Well actually there’s a wee bit of scrabbling around trying to capture some…ahem…pee first, and then you can push the button. Good luck with the first bit though.

The Californian developed (yeah, of course) system then uses a specially crafted urine analysis cup and the smartphone camera to give an instant readout of little Rover’s little diseases or lack thereof. Clearly the diagnosis is going to be limited to things that go on inside the urine of the critter, so no good for things like canine migraine, but hey, it’s a start right?

As the blurb says, this is not a substitute for a proper veterinarian inspection, so it’s probably better if you treat it more as a way to get an early warning of any possible problems. You could also treat it as an excuse to scrabble around on all fours gathering up urine samples from our 4 legged friends, but that might be considered a little weird. It looks like the app (iPhone only at the moment) is free, but the analysis kit costs $9.99 a pop.