Veterinary Services in the US Report, 5th Edition: Competing for the Pet Care Customer

Report Overview

The US veterinary industry faces pressure, but innovation will drive future growth.

Is the veterinary sector in crisis? Not exactly, but traditional veterinary services and service providers are facing an affordability crisis. The sector is experiencing challenging macroeconomic times, a fast-digitalizing landscape that leaves traditional veterinary practices at a disadvantage, and uncharacteristically modest dollar growth (especially when factoring out inflation). The post-pandemic era has Americans grappling with persistent inflation, and the elevated costs of pet products and services have exacerbated the strain on pet owners, with negative-to-flat dog population trends contributing to the troubled times. Nonetheless, specific competitive, pet population, and customer opportunities remain for strategic players.

Traditional Veterinary Practices Face Headwinds, but Overall Sector Has Diverse Growth Opportunities

The post-pandemic era has seen Americans grappling with persistent inflation, and the elevated costs of pet products and services – on top of human essentials – have exacerbated the strain on pet owners, resulting in spending cutbacks, deferral of adoption, and pet relinquishment. Therefore, any form of veterinary service that combines quality care with price reflexibility is now timely.

Often working through innovative partnerships and alliances, the top veterinary players aggressively cross former business boundaries to compete for consumer mindshare, customer loyalty, and pet care expenditures. Pet industry growth, therefore, is largely being driven by the “omnimarket” strategies of the market leaders, who recognize that pet owner spending has broadened across a transformed set of products, services, and high-tech product/service hybrids. Corporate kingpins in the general or pet market are best positioned to provide this type of tech-based, 360-degree tracking of pet care.

Customer Priorities and Psychographics

The growth momentum among top competitors stems not only from multi-pronged strategies and the scale of business resources available, but from customer preference for one-stop shopping – or, in terms of the pet industry, for having a single main supplier of an expanded and often humanized set of pet products and services. Younger generation pet shopper preferences boost this momentum.

E-Commerce Continues to Outperform

Already advancing by leaps and bounds pre-pandemic, internet sales of pet products jumped in 2020, when COVID re-mixed shopping patterns for consumer packaged goods across the board. Even so, Packaged Facts projects e-commerce sales of pet products to double the 2020 figure by 2025.

E-commerce presents a sharp challenge to veterinary practice profits as pet medication sales shift online, but creates opportunities for online pet pharmacies as veterinary care follows in the path of overall consumer market trends. Prescription pet medications have traditionally been a profit center for local veterinary practices, bringing in higher margins than core diagnostic and surgical services. The recent inflation in veterinary services, in fact, partly stems from a normalizing of clinical costs that were formerly subsidized by the high-profit in-house pet medication business.

Although direct-order purchasing of Rx pet medications has been available to pet owners for decades, the launch of Chewy Pharmacy in 2018 ushered in a new era of omnimarket strategies. Amazon’s entry in online pet pharmacy in May 2025 represents the most recent major move in this arena.

A Comprehensive Market Analysis

Veterinary Services in the US: Competing for the Pet Care Customer, 5th Edition provides detailed and data-rich analysis of the veterinary services sector for dogs and cats in the US. The discussion spans sector sales and growth, the competitive landscape, usage patterns for veterinary services, and customer demographics. The report also covers cross-category trends and opportunities in pet medications, pet food, and “hands-on” non-medical pet services (grooming, boarding, daycare, and training) as components of veterinary sector competition for the pet care dollar.

Building on analyses presented in previous editions of this report, this fully updated fifth edition features:

• Breakouts of historical retail sales for 2019 through 2024 and projections for 2025 vs. 2029 for veterinary services overall and for services vs. products.
• Omnimarket competitive strategies of key players including the role of e-commerce
• Usage rates for veterinary services overall, by type of provider, and by dog/cat ownership classifications; annual veterinary visit and spending patterns
• Historical and projected figures for veterinary sales and share of total category for pet medications, pet food, and the core “hands-on” non-medical pet services
• Customer demographics for veterinary services overall, for veterinary flea control products, for veterinary pet food products, and for the core non-medical pet services

Backed by exclusive data from Packaged Facts’ 2025 Surveys of Pet Owners, this report is an essential resource for industry stakeholders looking to navigate the challenges and opportunities in the veterinary sector.

Veterinary Services Report Details

Veterinary Services Report Scope & Methodology

This report focuses on the veterinary services sector for dogs and cats in the US, with analysis spanning sector sales and growth, the competitive landscape, usage patterns for veterinary services, and customer demographics. The report also covers cross-category trends and opportunities in pet medications, pet food, and “hands-on” non-medical pet services (grooming, boarding, daycare, and training) as components of veterinary sector competition for the pet care dollar.

Veterinary services for farm animals or for pets other than dogs or cats fall outside the scope of this report.

The information contained in this report was obtained from primary and secondary research. The former includes national online consumer polls of US adult pet owners (aged 18 and older), conducted on an ongoing basis by Packaged Facts, to measure veterinary service usage rates and psychographics. With sample sizes of approximately 2,000 respondents, these Packaged Facts Pet Owner Surveys are based on national online research panels that are census representative on the primary demographic measures of age, gender, geographic region, race/ethnicity, and household income. The surveys primarily cited in this report were conducted in January 2025 and May/June 2025, along with information culled from Packaged Facts’ extensive pet market research database and report collection.

Packaged Facts primary research is regularly published in leading veterinary and pet industry journals including the Fountain Report, Pet Care Weekly, and Petfood Industry. In addition, our primary research includes consultation with other veterinary and pet market experts. Secondary research is comprised of information and data gathered from government, business, and trade sources and publications. Our estimates of veterinary sector size, growth, and composition draw on sources including Animality, VetWatch, Brakke Consulting, and other veterinary market sources.

The consumer discussion draws on trended MRI-Simmons National Consumer Studies though the Winter 2025 release, with field dates from November 2023 through January 2025.

Leading Companies in US Veterinary Services