A new Vetsource study that examined transactional data from 6,574 veterinary practices found decreased visits, fewer active patients, lagging wellness care and slower revenue growth in 2024.
The key takeaways included:
- Veterinary service prices rose 8% in the past 12 months, or 1.6 times higher than the national inflation rate.
- Revenue growth from August 2023 to August 2024 was 3.9%, a significant decrease from 6.7% in 2019.
- Year-over-year visits were down 2.3%.
Since late 2022, veterinary practices have increased prices to grow revenue, but declining visits have slowed growth.
Other findings from the Vetsource study included:
- Days between veterinary visits increased by 48% from July 2020 to 2021.
- Sick visits were relatively stable in 2023 and 2024 at 45%.
- Wellness visits made up about 24% of total visits, down 2.9%.
- Total visits were down 2.9%.
- From August 2023 to August 2024, therapeutic food purchases were down 4.2%, pharmacy purchases fell by 0.3%, and surgery spending was down 1.5%.
- Average annual parasiticide purchases per practice were down 5.7%. Also, 58.2% of dog owners did not purchase parasiticide protection from their veterinarians.
- Total active patients were down 1.9%.
- Average daily transactions per veterinarian fell by 2.58%.
- Average days worked each month per veterinarian were down 0.72%.
Vetsource is a digital platform that provides pharmacy, technology and business services for the pet health industry.
The study, which also offers key action items, may be downloaded at bit.ly/4h2u8FN.