Keep a pulse on the evolution of Vet Med.

The animal health industry is entering a new era. Industry growth continues, but the dynamics are evolving. Our industry has stabilized and continued to grow since the blip of the pandemic-driven boom in 2021, with growth rates not seen since.

While the industry is still growing, growth is normalizing, and the dynamics of clinic visits, pricing, innovation cycles, and buyer behavior now look distinctly different from the immediate post-pandemic surge.

Understanding these industry shifts is essential for B2B animal health marketers to support product positioning, pricing, and marketing to build healthy demand funnels. In this article, we’ll review the top trends shaping veterinary marketing.

Trend 1: The Animal Health Growth Story is Evolving, as Care Affordability Becomes a Top Concern

The global animal health market is growing at a 10.46% CAGR, but the drivers are shifting.¹ Pet owners are increasingly facing financial restrictions, which is decreasing annual veterinary visits.² Emergency/problem visits maintain steady, but many pet owners are extending the time between wellness exams. A whitepaper from Vetsource showed that wellness visits declined by 3.8% in 2025 compared to the previous year, indicating that preventive care is being stretched out or forgone.³

The Vetsource Industry Tracker shows that over the last 12 months, veterinary visits are down 2.7% year over year, but revenue is up 2.6% year over year.⁴ Much of the revenue growth is coming from price increases that are being passed along to pet owners who are already financially pinched.² Since 2020, the cost of veterinary care has grown at a rate of nearly 2x the inflation rate, sparking concerns.⁵

These trends are driving the animal health industry to shift focus to care affordability. Industry growth driven by price increases, coupled with concurrent pet owner price sensitivity, isn’t a sustainable growth plan.

These industry trends are consistent with the findings of our independent market research.⁶ Our industry survey revealed the top three challenges in veterinary medicine: economic uncertainty, pet owners' financial constraints, and staffing.

The focus on affordability is increasing the utilization of alternative payment methods, including subscription wellness plans, memberships, and third-party financing options.

For veterinary marketers, this shift means growth will increasingly come from improving utilization, compliance, and clinical value per visit, rather than relying solely on price increases. Many veterinary marketers are shifting messaging to focus on:

• Ways to unlock clinic efficiencies that drive profitability without increasing care prices for pet owners.
• How to make wellness care more affordable.
• The pet owner's financial savings associated with earlier disease detection.
• Pricing transparency and ROI conversations matter more to veterinarians.
• Financing and subscription models may grow in popularity.

Trend 2: The Demand for Innovation Expands Beyond Product Launches

New therapies and technologies are driving the next wave of industry growth and will help improve its sustainability. While the market has its eye on important treatment and diagnostic product launches, the need for innovation expands beyond new products:

• Price innovations that can make care more affordable
• Opportunities to use AI to drive clinic efficiencies
• Workflow improvements.
• Education, products, or services that improve client compliance with diagnostics and preventive care, which are the most declined services in veterinary practice

Trend 3: AI and Technology Are Entering Veterinary Practice

While animal health has been more conservative in adopting AI tools than other industries, they are increasingly being used in daily practice. According to The State of General Practice Veterinary Care, 2026 Edition by Instinct Science, the most commonly used AI tools are:⁷

• Medical records and SOAP creation
• Assistance with diagnostic interpretation
• Summarizing patient records
• AI chatbots for managing appointments and administrative tasks

The Instince Science report also revealed that about 33% of practices use AI for scribing or medical records, while only 13% use AI for diagnostic interpretation, showing the vast room for growth in AI and technology in animal health.⁷ Veterinarians are interested in non-clinical technology innovations to support data-driven practice management, including inventory optimization tools and performance benchmarking.

These technology trends have implications for B2B veterinary marketers:

• While veterinarians are later adopters of AI, they do recognize they need to find workflow efficiencies to remain competitive and grow. Careful positioning around product or service outcomes, rather than the AI supporting them, may help with adoption.
• Technology is often adopted in a phased approach. Identify the quick wins that your product or service provides and adopt an “land-and-expand” strategy to more deeply integrate tools.

As the workforce landscape shifts, veterinary clinics are actively adopting technology to create flexible work environments, including part-time roles, relief staffing, and remote positions such as virtual CSRs. New research suggests that by 2030, approximately 20% of all veterinary visits will be performed via telemedicine, providing even more opportunities for workplace flexibility.⁸

Trend 4: Veterinary Workforce Pressures Are Evolving, But Not Solved

As demand for veterinary care has eased slightly since the global pandemic, so has the pressure of the workforce shortage. While animal health still feels the pinch of burnout and understaffing, the crisis is not as extreme. An industry workforce survey from The VET Recruiter revealed that in 2024, 63% of veterinarians agreed there was a workforce shortage, compared to 58.4% in 2025, indicating a softening, but not a solution, to staffing concerns.⁹ The Instinct Science industry report also showed that more than half of practices didn’t see significant staff turnover, and only 14% of practices reported low team morale.⁷

These changes indicate improvement, but there’s still a long way to go. B2B veterinary marketers should continue to focus on time savings and workload reduction to support veterinary teams. Training, onboarding, and ongoing customer support remain important for veterinary teams considering adopting new products or services.

Trend 5: Consolidation in Veterinary Practices Slows

Approximately 35% of veterinary practices are corporate-owned, and 65% are independent, according to Vetsource data.¹⁰ However, the frenzy of consolidation is slowing.¹¹ This stabilization of consolidation has been driven by decreasing margins, higher interest rates, and a decline in demand for veterinary services.¹²

Marketing implications:

• Corporate marketing strategies remain important to capture the 35% of the market is corporately held.
• As consolidation slows, corporate groups may be more focused on standardization, presenting opportunities for products or services that can support that mission.
• Sales and marketing organizations should have two distinct strategies for private practices and corporate practices.

Poised for Success

The animal health industry remains strong but is entering a more complex growth phase. The unexpected surge in demand in 2021 drove a spike in growth, unmet demand for staff, and a consolidation frenzy, with an unpredictable future. Since then, the industry has re-stabilized and shows more predictable growth patterns.

B2B veterinary marketers can succeed in this environment by keeping a pulse on economic pressures, evolving clinic workflows, technology innovations, and evolving purchasing behaviors.

The Clinician’s Brief team is here to help you navigate the evolving market to drive outcomes for your brand. Contact our team today to discuss your marketing goals, and we’ll align you with the strategies and tactics that work best in today’s market.

References

1 https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/animal-health-market
2 https://www.investopedia.com/soaring-vet-prices-are-forcing-pet-owners-to-skip-visits-11914589
3 ​​https://www.pets.care/news/2026/01/new-white-paper-reveals-veterinary-visits-decline-3-point-1-percent-in-2025-as-negative-trend-continues
4 https://vetsource.com/products/data-services/veterinary-industry-tracker/ *data accessed March 4, 2026
5 https://www.npr.org/2025/10/20/nx-s1-5571103/why-are-veterinarian-bills-getting-so-ruff-on-the-wallet
6 https://vetmedux.com/industry-insights/2025-veterinary-market-survey-results/
7 The State of General Practice Veterinary Care, 2026 Edition. Instinct Science
8 https://veterinaryanalytics.com/blog/veterinary-industry-summary-april-20-26-2025/
9 https://thevetrecruiter.com/results-from-the-vet-recruiters-third-annual-workplace-workforce-survey/
10 https://www.avma.org/news/less-foot-traffic-veterinary-practices-spells-declining-revenue
11 https://ackerman-group.com/owner-education/market-trends/quarterly-update/2025-q3-veterinary-industry-market-update/
12 https://www.avma.org/news/veterinarians-report-increasing-price-sensitivity-decreasing-visits