What Furwise is for
My first month with a cat, I was googling something every day. Was the vomiting normal? Should the poop look like that? What was that sound he just made? How much should he eat, and how much water is enough? Is sleeping sixteen hours too much? Just figuring out the litter box took a whole week: how many to set up, which kind of litter, why he suddenly stopped using one. None of these questions exist before you have a cat. After, every search you finish surfaces two more.
The bigger problem was knowing who to trust. A midnight search for "cat vomiting" pulls up tens of thousands of pages that all sound reasonable. Click through, and eight out of ten are content farms copying each other; the other two are soft-sells for cat food. What I wanted back then was someone who could just put the questions in order: what I needed to know right now, what could wait, and what meant the cat had to see a vet tonight.
Furwise is what I built for that earlier version of myself. Every article starts from peer-reviewed veterinary research and clinical guidelines, plus what I see firsthand at a veterinary clinic. The app turns that into a day-one guide you can actually follow, so you spend less time searching and more time with your cat.
About me
I spent ten years in software, at Microsoft, Pinkoi, and TrendMicro. The most useful thing I picked up isn't the technology itself. It's the engineering habit of only drawing conclusions you can trace back to a source, and admitting you don't know when you can't. So every medical claim on Furwise has a citation you can check. When the veterinary literature hasn't reached consensus on something, I write "no clear answer yet" rather than forcing one.
On top of that, I'm now working part-time as an assistant at a veterinary clinic in Taipei. Plenty of people build pet apps; few of them get to see what owners actually look like at the front desk every day. That vantage point gives me access to observations other pet-app builders can't reach, and I take them straight into how the Furwise app is designed, to help owners care for their cats better at home.
A bit further back, I was that worried owner myself. My cat Hennessy (阿軒) was diagnosed with FLUTD (feline lower urinary tract disease) in 2025. That stretch was rough. Every day was symptom logs, tracking water and urine output, plus one late-night trip to the emergency vet in the middle of it. The features in Furwise built around caring for your cat came out of those weeks.
I bring engineering rigor to the evidence, and what I see at the clinic to what we build. When I sit down to write or design something, I remember that the person on the other side of the screen is feeling the same way I did back then.
How an article gets written, and where I stop
I'm not a veterinarian, which is why I write to a stricter standard than I'd otherwise need. Every article starts from clinical guidelines or peer-reviewed research, not from a Google search. The usual starting points are Cornell Feline Health Center, ISFM / iCatCare, WSAVA, AAFP, and ACVS. Each claim is cross-checked against at least two independent sources. When two sources disagree, both views go in the article with the disagreement noted. Where the field doesn't have consensus yet, I write that openly, "no clear answer yet," rather than wrapping the ambiguity in vague language.
But there are clear lines I don't cross. I don't diagnose, don't prescribe, don't make calls about your specific cat. If your cat seems off right now, call your vet. What Furwise is meant to do is help you walk in better-prepared, and walk out with a clearer plan to follow at home. It's not a substitute for veterinary care. It's the middle layer owners have always had to figure out on their own.
Articles are kept current. When new research comes out, or when I revisit an older piece, I update what's there, fix mistakes, fill in gaps, and mark the latest review date.
How the app helps you care for your cat
Furwise's Chinese name is 毛孩指南, literally "a guide for your cat." I want it to read like a longtime cat parent's guide for you. What I've seen at the clinic and learned raising my own cat become the daily prompts in the app: when vaccines, spay/neuter, deworming, and bloodwork are due; symptoms, medication, and weight you can log and pull up later; one shared account for multiple cats and family members. Every prompt has a sourced article behind it.
Furwise is on the App Store.
Editorial commitments
Whether it's an article or the app, Furwise holds to four rules:
Every medical claim must have a source
Peer-reviewed research and recognized clinical guidelines (Cornell Feline Health Center, WSAVA, iCatCare, ACVS, AAFP) are the only basis. No content lifted from pet-food brands. No SEO-built aggregator sites.
No money from pet food companies
Furwise doesn't accept payment from pet-food companies for editorial coverage of their products. This is a permanent commitment, not a temporary policy.
No identifiable patient cases
What I see at the veterinary clinic doesn't become Furwise content. Even anonymized observations never include the combination of breed, age, symptom, and time frame that could identify a real patient.
Articles stay current
As new research emerges, older articles are revisited and updated. Every article carries its latest review date.
Contact
- LinkedIn: Chi-Yu Wu
- GitHub: @Hundao
- Email: [email protected]