What is SugarPaws?

SugarPaws is a logbook for a diabetic cat. You type in each blood glucose reading off the meter and each insulin dose you give; the app keeps them per cat, shows the last reading and dose at the top of the entry screen so you can answer “did I already give the morning dose?”, charts them against the target range your vet set, and turns any date range into a PDF report to hand to the vet or a CSV file to keep as a backup. It runs on iPhone (iOS 18 or later), is installed from the App Store, and stores everything on the phone — there is no account, no cloud sync and no server.

Caution

SugarPaws is not a medical device and does not give dosing advice. It records what you enter and shows it back to you. It does not evaluate your cat’s control, suggest a dose, or replace your veterinarian — and its insulin activity curve is a textbook estimate, not a measurement of your cat. Every treatment decision, including changes to insulin dose or timing, belongs to your vet.

What SugarPaws does — and deliberately doesn’t

It does: log glucose readings (in mg/dL or mmol/L) and insulin doses (in 0.5-unit steps) with a time and a note; warn you before saving a likely duplicate, an implausible reading or an unusually high dose; show your history by day; chart readings and doses over 24 hours to 90 days or a custom range; draw a typical insulin activity curve for the insulin you use; keep separate profiles for several cats; remind you at set times twice a day; and export a PDF report or a CSV backup you can import again later.

It does not: connect to a glucose meter or continuous monitor, sync between devices, calculate variability or “time in range” metrics, grade your cat’s readings, or recommend doses. The Charts tab shows only counts, an average and the share of readings inside the target range — plain arithmetic over what you logged, because the published thresholds for anything fancier come from continuous monitors sampling every few minutes and do not transfer to two spot checks a day.

What the app is made of

Four tabs: Add (the Quick Entry screen, with a Glucose and an Insulin segment), History, Charts and Settings. With more than one cat profile a cat switcher bar appears above the tabs. First launch shows a scrollable medical disclaimer you must read to the bottom, then a three-step setup (name and photo, glucose unit, target range and insulin) that you can skip and finish later in Settings.

Explore the docs

Using the app

Get started Requirements, the disclaimer, the three-step first-run setup, the four tabs, and what the header strip and toasts are telling you.

Log a glucose reading Typing a reading, the recordable range in each unit, backdating, notes, and the 'Check before saving' warnings for duplicates and implausible values.

Log an insulin dose The 0.5-unit wheel and how it is prefilled, the insulin type stamped on each dose, and the warnings for a second dose within an hour or more than 15 units.

History The All / Glucose / Insulin lists grouped by day, what the colours and arrows mean, swipe to delete, and the 5-second Undo.

Charts and summary figures The glucose and insulin charts, the time ranges, the four summary tiles and exactly how they are computed, and the full-screen pan-and-zoom view.

The insulin activity curve What the estimate is built from — onset, peak and duration per insulin type — how doses combine, why the axis says Low/Mid/Peak, and what it must not be used for.

Cat profiles and multiple cats Name, photo and target range, the range the app will accept, adding and switching cats, and what deleting a profile removes.

Reminders The four daily reminders and their default times, what happens when notifications are denied, and how a logged dose silences the next insulin reminder.

Settings reference Every setting with its default: units, insulin type, appearance, default chart range, Always Show Disclaimer, and Delete All Data.

Data, backup and reports

PDF report for your vet Where to make it, the date presets, what page 1 and page 2 contain — and the four summary lines that are all the report will ever say about the numbers.

CSV export (backup) The ten columns, why Value is always mg/dL while DisplayValue is your unit, one cat or all cats, and how the file reaches you.

CSV import Required and optional columns, how units, cats and duplicates are handled, the merge prompt, and every reason a row can be skipped.

Privacy and where your data lives On-device Core Data only, no account or sync, the two permissions the app can ask for, and what leaves the phone when you share a file.

Limits and ranges Every numeric bound in one place: recordable readings and doses, target range, note length, import limits, reminder count, undo window.

When something looks wrong

Troubleshooting 'Your data couldn't be loaded', reminders that never arrive, a greyed-out Save, imports that skip rows, a report that won't share, and the missing cat switcher.

Need help? Reach the support team.