1. A system for monitoring vital signs of a pet animal, comprising: an annular band having a working surface configured to wrap around a portion of a pet animal; a sensor array comprising at least two sensor elements situated along a circumference of the band, the at least two sensor elements including an accelerometer and a non-accelerometer sensor, the accelerometer configured to measure at least one accelerometer-measured bioparameter of the pet animal from among: resting patterns, activity patterns, movement patterns, position patterns, lameness and scratching, and the non-accelerometer sensor configured to measure at least one of the following non-accelerometer-measured bioparameters of the pet animal: temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate; one or more remote or local processors configured to receive (a) sensor output data from the sensor array concerning the measured bioparameters and (b) reference data concerning the measured bioparameters of the pet animal or of a population of the pet animal, the one or more remote or local processors configured to determine whether a specific medical condition is suspected by at least one of the following: (i) scoring at least two bioparameters relative to the reference data and comparing a cumulative score of all scored bioparameters to a threshold cumulative score or to a threshold cumulative range; or (ii) identifying an abnormal pattern in at least one bioparameter from among the accelerometer-measured bioparameters and the non-accelerometer-measured bioparameters, the one or more remote or local processors configured to send an alert if at least one specific medical condition is suspected.