The veterinary market remains attractive, but the environment around practice ownership is changing.
Demand for veterinary care remains strong over the long term, while practices are dealing with declining visits, slower revenue growth, staffing pressures, and rising operating costs. At the same time, corporate consolidation continues to shape the industry, even as the pace of acquisitions has slowed.
For veterinary practice owners, these shifts make the quality of the individual business increasingly important.
A strong practice is not defined by revenue alone. Buyers are looking at the team, profitability, operations, growth potential, and how well the business can perform without depending entirely on its owner.
Veterinary Demand Remains Strong
The long-term outlook for veterinary medicine remains positive.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of veterinarians to grow 9% between 2025 and 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations. Approximately 3,100 veterinarian openings are projected each year over that period. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Growing pet-related spending, expanding treatment options, and an aging pet population are all expected to support continued demand for veterinary services.
But strong long-term demand does not mean every veterinary practice is experiencing the same growth today.
Owners are operating in a market where attracting clients is only one part of the challenge. Practices also need enough veterinarians and staff to serve those clients efficiently and maintain profitability.
That makes a stable, productive clinical team increasingly important to the strength of the business.
Veterinary Visits Are Under Pressure
One of the clearest changes in the veterinary market is happening at the practice level.
According to Vetsource’s 2026 veterinary industry research, which analyzed transactional data from nearly 6,500 U.S. veterinary practices, patient visits continued to decline in 2025 while revenue growth remained slow. Vetsource
Vetsource found that average visits per practice declined 3.1% in 2025, while wellness visits fell 3.8%. Vetsource
That matters because practices cannot rely indefinitely on price increases to offset lower visit volume.
For owners, sustainable growth increasingly depends on retaining clients, bringing patients back consistently, using veterinarian capacity effectively, and controlling operating costs.
Those same fundamentals can also influence how a buyer views the long-term strength of a veterinary practice.
Practice Productivity Is Becoming More Important
The AVMA’s 2026 Economic State of the Veterinary Profession points to another important shift.
The number and size of veterinary practices continue to grow, and gross revenue has increased across several practice types. However, for companion animal exclusive and companion animal predominant practices, gross revenue per full-time-equivalent veterinarian was lower in 2025 than in 2024. AVMA Store
That puts more attention on productivity.
Adding veterinarians or growing revenue does not automatically create a stronger business if costs are increasing just as quickly or providers are not being used effectively.
For veterinary practice owners, it is worth looking beyond total revenue and asking:
- How productive is each veterinarian?
- Are margins stable?
- Is the practice using its available space and staff effectively?
- Can another veterinarian be added without significantly increasing overhead?
- Is revenue growth translating into greater profitability?
These questions matter when running the practice today and when preparing it for a potential sale.
Corporate Consolidation Continues, but the Market Has Changed
Corporate ownership is already a significant part of veterinary medicine.
An August 2026 analysis from AAHA reports that corporate consolidators and private equity-backed groups own approximately 25% of primary care practices and 75% of specialty and emergency practices, representing roughly half of veterinary revenue nationwide. AAHA
But the pace of consolidation is changing.
AAHA notes that rising capital costs, higher interest rates, and current economic conditions have slowed the growth of corporate consolidators. AAHA
That does not mean acquisitions have stopped.
It means buyers have more reason to be disciplined about which veterinary practices they pursue.
For owners, the distinction is important. Simply operating in an industry with active consolidation does not guarantee that every practice will attract the same level of interest.
The underlying quality of the business matters more.
What Makes a Veterinary Practice Attractive to Buyers?
When buyers evaluate a veterinary practice, financial performance is an important starting point.
But EBITDA and revenue do not tell the entire story.
A buyer also needs confidence that the practice can continue performing after the transaction.
That means looking closely at factors such as:
- A stable team of veterinarians and staff
- Limited dependence on the selling owner
- Consistent revenue and profitability
- Strong client retention and patient demand
- Capacity to add providers or services
- Clear and accurate financial reporting
- Established operating processes
- Management responsibilities that extend beyond the founder
- A realistic plan for the owner’s transition
Consider two veterinary practices generating similar earnings.
One relies heavily on the owner for production, struggles to retain associates, and requires the founder to make most day-to-day decisions.
The other has multiple productive veterinarians, an experienced team, established systems, and enough management infrastructure to operate without constant owner involvement.
Their current financial results may look similar.
Their risk to a buyer does not.
The easier it is to understand how the business will continue after a sale, the stronger its position can be.
Veterinarian Retention Can Affect the Value of the Business
Veterinary medicine continues to need clinicians.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 3,100 veterinarian openings per year through 2035, while the AVMA’s latest economic research continues to show strong labor-market demand for veterinarians. Bureau of Labor Statistics
For a practice owner, recruiting another veterinarian can already be difficult.
For a potential buyer, acquiring a practice and then losing one or more key doctors creates an additional risk.
That makes veterinarian retention part of the broader value of the business.
Strong compensation alone is not always enough. Culture, workload, leadership, scheduling, support staff, career development, and the way a transaction is communicated can all affect whether veterinarians remain with a practice.
Owners considering a future sale should think about retention well before entering the market.
Clean Financials Make the Practice Easier to Understand
Financial organization is also becoming more important across veterinary medicine.
In April 2026, AAHA and Veterinary Management Groups released an updated veterinary Chart of Accounts designed to improve consistency in how practices categorize revenue and expenses and give owners greater visibility into financial performance. The framework was also reviewed by organizations including AVMA and the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association. AAHA
For an owner considering a sale, financial clarity matters for another reason.
A potential buyer needs to understand what the practice actually earns.
Personal expenses, one-time costs, unusual owner compensation, inconsistent accounting categories, and poorly documented adjustments can make that harder.
The cleaner the financial history, the easier it is to explain how the practice performs and where its value comes from.
Good reporting also helps an owner identify weaknesses before a buyer does.
Independent Practices Still Have Options
The growth of corporate veterinary groups has changed the competitive landscape, but independent ownership remains an important part of the industry.
A 2025 peer-reviewed analysis published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science concluded that current conditions may create new opportunities for independent veterinary practices. The analysis points to the ability of independent owners to compete through culture, client relationships, technology, outside business services, and more flexible decision-making. Frontiers
That matters for owners considering their future.
Selling to a corporate buyer is one option, but it is not the only possible path.
An owner may decide to remain independent, transition ownership internally, bring in a partner, continue growing, or explore an outside sale.
Understanding the value and strength of the practice makes each of those decisions easier.
What This Means for Veterinary Practice Owners
The veterinary market in 2026 presents both opportunity and pressure.
Demand for veterinary care remains strong over the long term. At the same time, visits are declining, revenue growth has slowed, productivity is under greater pressure, and corporate acquisition activity is becoming more disciplined.
That makes now a good time for owners to evaluate the business itself.
Ask:
- How dependent is the practice on me?
- Are we retaining veterinarians and key staff?
- Are visits, revenue, and profitability moving in the right direction?
- Can the practice grow without expenses increasing at the same rate?
- Are our financials clean and easy to understand?
- Do we have enough management infrastructure beyond the owner?
- What would someone outside the business see as its biggest risk?
- Do I know what my veterinary practice is worth today?
You do not need to be ready to sell for those questions to matter.
They are also questions that help determine whether you are building a stronger veterinary practice.
Preparation Creates More Options
Veterinary practice owners cannot control interest rates, industry visit volume, or the broader pace of consolidation.
They can control how prepared their business is.
Strengthening veterinarian retention, improving margins, reducing founder dependence, cleaning up financial reporting, documenting operations, and creating a realistic growth plan can all make the practice stronger.
For an owner who eventually decides to sell, those improvements can also make the business easier for buyers to understand and create a stronger position during negotiations.
For an owner who decides not to sell, the result is still a healthier and more resilient practice.
The goal is not to prepare because you have to sell.
It is to prepare so you have options when the time is right.
Thinking About Selling Your Veterinary Practice?
At Evergreen M&A, we work with veterinary practice owners to understand what their businesses are worth, prepare for a potential transaction, and run a competitive sale process designed to create buyer interest and maximize value.
If you are considering selling your veterinary practice or simply want to understand how the current market may affect your options, reach out to Hannah Huke at hannah@evergreenforfounders.com.