Vet visits are down, but rising prices are masking the damage

Veterinary visits are still slipping even as pet care prices keep climbing, and the clearest pattern in the latest data is where pet parents are pulling back: routine care. Vetsource, analyzing 6,574 U.S. practices, found visits fell 2.3% in 2024, active patients dropped 1.9%, and the average time between visits stretched to 85.8 days, up 48% versus three years earlier. At the same time, veterinary inflation has continued to run ahead of broader inflation: the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported veterinarian services were up 5.3% year over year in February 2026, while overall CPI rose 2.4%. Industry commentary suggests the decline is concentrated in wellness and preventive care, while sick visits and higher-acuity services have held up better. (dvm360.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this isn’t just a volume story. It’s a mix shift story. Preventive care, vaccines, parasite prevention, and routine follow-up are becoming easier for cost-sensitive pet parents to defer, while urgent care, diagnostics, and complex procedures remain harder to avoid. That can preserve revenue in the short term, but it raises clinical risk, weakens continuity of care, and makes practices more dependent on price increases and higher-ticket services. Gallup and PetSmart Charities found 52% of U.S. pet parents skipped or declined veterinary care, and among those who declined care, 14% said their pet’s condition worsened or the pet died. (news.gallup.com)

What to watch: Watch whether practices respond with better pricing transparency, payment flexibility, and stronger wellness recall systems, or keep leaning on fee increases that may push even more preventive care out of reach. (covetrus.com)