Stats from the Veterinary Industry Tracker powered by Vetsource and AVMA

December 8–14, 2024

A new Vetsource study examines how shifting trends in pet owner behavior in 2024 will likely impact the veterinary industry over the next year, and how practices can mitigate the effects of these changes.

The U.S. faced numerous economic challenges in 2024, and price increases led to concerns about the ability of pet owners to afford care.

The study analyzed transactional data from more than 6,500 U.S.-based veterinary practices. General companion animal practices primarily (89%) comprise the study, with 65% independently owned and 35% corporately owned.

Some key takeaways from the study include:

• Revenue and visits have been trending down since September 2023.
• Price increases are making it more difficult for pet owners to afford care for their pets. Veterinary service inflation has risen by 8% in the last year — 1.6 times higher than the national inflation rate.
• Pet owners are spending less on therapeutic diets, pharmaceuticals, parasiticides, and surgeries at veterinary practices.

But it isn’t all doom and gloom. The report provides numerous ways practices can shift from surviving to thriving in the post-pandemic veterinary world, with cultivating meaningful client relationships being a key focus.

Get the complete results of the study by downloading Vetsource’s free white paper, “Behavior Shift: Implications of today’s pet owner trends on veterinary medicine in 2025.”

Note: This will be the final Industry Summary blog post of 2024. Happy holidays, and we’ll see you in 2025!

 

Check out the Veterinary Industry Tracker for daily stats.

 

 

+1.7% Revenue YoY (Last Week)

-3.5% Visits YoY (Last Week)

 

While in positive territory, year-over-year veterinary industry revenue dropped last week compared to the week prior, declining from 5.1% to 1.7%. Visits also fell from 1.0% the previous week to -3.5% last week.

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-7.0% Heartworm YoY

-5.4% Flea/Tick YoY

 

 

+2.9% Services YoY

-2.3% Products YoY

 

Parasiticide purchases were down again last week. Year-over-year heartworm was -7.0% and flea/tick was -5.4%, changes from -3.6% and -0.8% respectively the week prior. Service revenue was 2.9% year over year, a decline from the previous week’s 6.0%. And product revenue fell into negative territory at -2.3%, a change from 2.1% the week prior.

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+2.9% Revenue YoY (Last 12 Months)

-2.6% Visits YoY (Last 12 Months)

 

After improvements over the last two weeks of November, the rolling 14-day trendline shows a decline in revenue and visits since early December.

 

 

5,600 Practices

2.2M Revenue per Practice (Last 12 Months)

10.4K Visits per Practice (Last 12 Months)

 

Colorado and Connecticut remained on top last week for year-over-year revenue growth at 6.7% and 6.2% respectively. Once again, only one state — Minnesota — saw a positive change in year-over-year visits, at 0.2%.

*Numbers are subject to change based on data availability and PIMS adjustments.

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