Consumer Trends in Pet Medications: United States Report

Report Overview

This report discusses consumer trends relating to US pet medication retail sales. This report provides a general overview of the consumer trends affecting the retail market for medications for domesticated dogs and cats, with a focus on products purchased directly by consumers. These include both prescription and over-the-counter (also called OTC or retail) medications. The primary focus of this report is on the core types of antiparasitics/ parasiticides – heartworm preventatives, flea/tick preventatives, and heartworm/flea combo products, and other dewormers (some of which also target other external parasites such as mosquitoes, flies, ear mites, lice, and sarcoptic mange, and/or other types of internal parasites such as hookworms, roundworms, whipworms, and tapeworms). “Flea/tick” can refer to products that treat only fleas and ticks, but can also refer to combination products that additionally treat worms, mites, etc., except heartworms. Also covered are market-shaping developments in other areas, including anxiety, pain management, cancer, cognitive dysfunction, and obesity/diabetes.
Animal health products for production animals and horses are excluded from this market analysis, as are nutritional supplements for companion animals, which are covered in Packaged Facts’ March 2026 report Pet Supplements in the US.
A full outline of report items by page is available in the Table of Contents.

Related NAICS Codes

Table of Contents

• Purchase Rates by Type
• Pet Medication Usage by Type
• Usage of Parasiticides by Household
• Changes in Purchasing
• Parasiticide Usage by Type
• Parasiticide Usage by Number & Age of Pets
• Usage by Brand

• Vet Clinics Most Frequently Used Channel for Prescription Medication Purchases
• Mass Merchandisers, Online Retailers for OTC Medication Purchases
• Share of Spending on Prescription Pet Medications by Channel
• Parasiticide Purchase Patterns by Channel

• Scope
• Sources
• Industry Codes
• Resources

• Figure 1 | Pet Medications Purchase Patterns by Type in Last 12 Months, 2026 (% of dog/cat owners)
• Table 1 | NAICS & SIC Codes Related to Pet Medications