Stats from the Veterinary Industry Tracker powered by Vetsource and AVMA

January 21–27, 2024

If you looked at last week’s Industry Summary email and wondered why the numbers were so low, you weren’t alone. To explain the ups and downs we’ve been seeing since the holiday season, we asked Dave Sullivan, Vetsource’s lead data analyst, to explain.

Q: Did the holidays affect the year-over-year numbers reported in the Veterinary Industry Tracker?

Dave Sullivan (DS): This past holiday season, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day each fell on a Monday. The prior year, those holidays fell on Sundays. Around 70% of veterinary clinics are already closed every Sunday, which meant that December 2022 and January 2023 saw little lost revenue overall. Because the holidays fell on Mondays — a day that the vast majority of clinics are usually open — this past holiday season, there was an unavoidable 3% drop in year-over-year revenue each for December 2023 and January 2024. Christmas 2024 and New Year’s Day 2025 will each fall on a Wednesday, so the year-over-year figures will each have a ‘lost’ weekday, which should mean they will cancel each other out.

Q: Why were last week’s numbers so low?

DS: Even after that first week in January, we are still seeing a significant decline in revenue and visits for the month. We suspect severe storms and other winter weather affecting multiple states and causing practices to close and/or pet owners to cancel appointments are to blame. The largest drop in visits has been seen in Tennessee, Arkansas, Oregon, and Mississippi. The heatmap below shows year-over-year visit rates by state for January 7–26.

Q: Which visit types are down the most so far this year?

DS: When looking at the breakdown of visits, those for boarding and grooming services or product purchases alone are seeing a more significant decline than visits that include more essential services, like exams and vaccines.

 

Thanks for the explanation, Dave!

Check out the Veterinary Industry Tracker for daily stats.

 

 

+4.1% Revenue YoY (Last Week)

-1.6% Visits YoY (Last Week)

 

 

Year-over-year revenue and visits began to rebound last week. Revenue improved to 4.1% from -5.7% the week prior, and visits were -1.6%, up from -11.7% the previous week.

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-6.5% Heartworm YoY

-5.3% Flea/Tick YoY

 

 

+5.4% Services YoY

-0.3% Products YoY

 

 

While year-over-year parasiticide protection was still down last week, it showed significant improvements over the previous week. Heartworm protection was -6.5%, compared to -20.5% the week prior, and flea/tick protection was -5.3%, a jump from -21.1% the previous week. Revenue from services improved to 5.4% from -3.9%, and revenue from products was -0.3%, a big improvement from -11.1% the week prior.

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+6.1% Revenue YoY (Last 12 Months)

-1.4% Visits YoY (Last 12 Months)

 

 

The rolling 14-day trendline shows revenue and visits at their lowest points in 12 months.

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5,271 Practices

2.1M Revenue per Practice (Last 12 Months)

10.5K Visits per Practice (Last 12 Months)

 

 

Last week, West Virginia saw the highest growth in year-over-year visits at 2.7%, and North Carolina continued to experience the most year-over-year revenue growth at 10.7%.

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

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