Vet Prices Up 67% Since 2017 as Private Equity Buys the Clinic

By Daniel Okafor

Veterinary prices in the United States have risen about 67% since 2017, nearly double the 38% increase in overall consumer prices over the same period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The bill for one Pennsylvania cat named Chicken shows what that looks like at the point of sale: $9,500 for a three-day hospital stay, before thousands more in testing.

Justin Laudadio found Chicken, a 12-year-old diabetic tabby, seizing on the floor of the family's Feasterville, Pennsylvania, home in 2024. Veterinarians stabilized him and diagnosed acromegaly, a hormonal disorder caused by a benign pituitary tumor. Laudadio and his wife, Airy, agreed to the bill before knowing whether Chicken would survive. "You do what you have to do," Justin said.

Chicken survived. He now sees his own cardiologist, eats specialized food and takes daily medication — a "luxury" his owners feel lucky to afford. Many owners cannot say the same.

Why did vet bills climb so fast?

Two forces drive the increase: expensive new medicine and industry consolidation.

Jennifer Quammen, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association, said pet owners now have access to MRI and ultrasound machines that "at one point [were] found in human hospitals only." She added: "That equipment certainly comes with a cost." Higher operating expenses, pharmaceutical prices and general inflation add to the bill.

The second force is ownership. Corporate and private equity groups controlled 11% of veterinary practices in 2017; by 2024 that share reached about 30%, according to Brakke Consulting. Among specialty and emergency clinics, corporate and private equity ownership runs 75% to 80%. Those clinics, plus corporate-owned primary care practices, account for roughly half of industry revenue.

Mars Veterinary Health, controlled by the family behind Mars candy, treated Chicken at two of its BluePearl hospitals. National Veterinary Associates, owned by JAB Holding Co., runs more than 1,000 veterinary hospitals in the United States and Canada — many keeping their original local names, which makes ownership hard to spot.

Why do investors want veterinary clinics?

The economics suit a roll-up strategy. Markets are fragmented and easy to consolidate. Pet owners pay out of pocket, with no insurer to contest prices. And demand is durable: owners who see pets as family members pay for the care a vet recommends.

Whether U.S. corporate practices uniformly charge more than independents remains unclear. But the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority found five large veterinary groups charged on average about 18% more than independent practices.

U.S. regulators have pushed back. During the Biden administration, the Federal Trade Commission required JAB to divest several specialty vet clinics as a condition of its more-than-billion-dollar acquisitions of two veterinary groups. The move, regulators said, would prevent the firm from "gobbling up competitors in regional markets that are already concentrated."

What happens to owners who cannot pay?

Owners delay care, take on debt, surrender animals — or worse.

"The biggest struggle in access to care is certainly the cost of it," said Donald Consla, a veterinarian at Animal Friends, a Pittsburgh shelter with a low-cost clinic. Demand there has grown as owners seek affordable vaccinations and wellness exams. He has seen the alternative: "Some of the estimates people come in with are truly wild."

Vet visits declined over the past year even as industry revenue rose, the AVMA reports. "We are seeing people delay routine care, preventive care," Quammen said.

Research by Lauren Powell, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, shows low-income owners report strong attachment to their animals — sometimes stronger than higher-income groups. They "will do everything they can within their means sometimes to try and find ways to access veterinary care," she said. And sometimes they exceed their means.

Who is catching owners who fall?

The Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society offers low-cost care, free pet food and temporary foster placements for animals whose owners face homelessness or other hardships. PAWS never turns anyone away for lack of funds, said Cory Topel, the group's communications and grants manager. "If you turn them away, then they're in a situation where they can no longer afford to keep their pet," she said — leaving owners to surrender the animal or "Tie them to a bench or let them run free."

The Bethlehem, Pennsylvania nonprofit For the Love of Alex covers vet costs for low-income owners nationwide. It paid more than $7,000 for a leg amputation for Daisy, a Pennsylvania dog hit by a car, after CareCredit financing covered her hospitalization but not the surgery. "Owning a pet has become dramatically expensive," said executive director Carla Isenberg, a former veterinary technician. She said multi-thousand-dollar emergency bills used to be unusual, and she now sees big price gaps between "mom-and-pop" clinics and corporate chains.

Airy Laudadio now questions whether the low life expectancy of cats with acromegaly is "because of the disease or because the [cost of the] treatment is so prohibitive for so many people." A few years earlier, before stable jobs, the couple might have faced what Justin called a "heartbreaking choice." As consolidation deepens, that choice is becoming a routine cost of pet ownership.