Soaring Vet Prices Are Forcing Pet Owners To Skip Visits

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_Pricey vet visits are declining as household budgets get squeezed.
Credit: Investopedia / Elizabeth Gueavara
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Diccon Hyatt

Thu, February 26, 2026 at 11:57 PM GMT+9 2 min read

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Key Takeaways

Vet visits declined 2% to 3% in 2025, as the cost of care has increased steadily.

Industry revenue has grown even as visits dropped because clinics are raising their prices to compensate.

The consolidation of vet clinics under corporate ownership is behind the trend according to analysts at Bank of America.

A pet’s companionship may be priceless, but the rising cost of animal care is forcing a growing number of owners to skip going to the vet.

That’s according to a report this week from Bank of America, which found visits are dropping while prices surge across the industry. Visits fell by 2% to 3% in 2025, BofA analysts said, citing industry consultant Travis Meredith, a veterinarian himself. Vet industry revenue growth of 2% that year was “entirely supported by +5 to +6% YoY price increases passed on to pet owners,” the report added.

What This Means For The Economy

The decline in vet visits could be a canary in the coal mine for other consumer products. Many economists see a risk that inflation and the faltering job market could squeeze household budgets to the point where overall consumer spending starts to fall.

The decline in vet visits is just one example of the hard choices people face as the cost of living continues to increase. Although the economy as a whole is healthy, household budgets are being squeezed by persistently high inflation and a lackluster job market that may not deliver pay raises to keep up. Sicker pets are just one consequence of the trend.

“As rising costs for pet care begin to weigh on households, pet owners may choose to defer or forgo both elective and essential treatments altogether: a behavior that could potentially compound over time,” BofA analysts led by Michael Ryskin found.

The consolidation of veterinary practices under corporate ownership through the 2010s is the root cause of accelerating prices, the report found.

“Following this roll‑up cycle, a greater and greater portion of US veterinary practices are now corporately owned, particularly by consolidators that more actively use price as a lever in their practices,” they wrote. “While consolidation initially supported revenue and margin expansion for veterinarians, escalating sticker prices have increasingly weighed on clinic traffic, essentially pricing out pet owners from care due to affordability concerns.”

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