Abstract

Cats are among the most popular companion animals worldwide, yet many of their health problems remain undiagnosed or untreated due to subtle symptoms and limited diagnostic tools. One of the most common chronic conditions is Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), which is often worsened by hairball accumulation in the intestine. The resulting blockage can exacerbate inflammation and further compromise digestive health. To address this, we developed MeowTrack, a programmable therapeutic probiotic platform designed to detect, monitor, treat, and record feline gut health. The system employs taurocholic acid (TCA) as a signal of food intake and calprotectin as an IBD biomarker. These two inputs are integrated through an AND logic gate, ensuring that downstream responses occur only under disease conditions with food available. Upon activation, MeowTrack expresses keratin-degrading enzymes to eliminate hairballs, butyrate-producing enzymes to restore gut homeostasis, and chromoproteins or fluorescent proteins to visualize disease states in feces. Furthermore, MeowTrack incorporates a Retro-Cascorder–based recording system to chronologically log transcriptional events associated with gut inflammation. Finally, the platform is paired with a custom-designed smart litter box equipped with a fluorescence detection module, creating an end-to-end workflow that connects gut-level diagnostics with real-world, at-home disease monitoring.