What are the factors that have caused such a drastic increase in vet bills? It’s not unusual for the yearly check up and vaccines to be $400. It wasn’t that long ago when it was cheaper. Covid? Pet insurance? Corporations buying up vet practices? What happened?
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Supply and demand of vets is my guess --my vet of 40 years retired in November after 50 years in practice (large animal, cows and horses mostly). He could not find a buyer for his practice. He ended up just shutting the doors. In the past few years, he’s had difficulty finding just-out-of-college vets to work with him. He said, “No one wants to get out of bed in the middle of winter and pull a calf.”
With a limited supply of vets, those that are in practice can raise their prices.
Another thought is the sudden increase of “public vets.” Here (Northern Indiana) we have two who come monthly and for $100 will spay, neuter, vaccinate, and chip your cat or dog. They are only here for 12 hours then move on to the next county. My GUESS is it is one or two vets and a whopping lot of vet-techs and volunteers (our Feral Cat Association is always asking for volunteers to help the process when the public vet is here). Sort of the “assembly line” (I think, never seen in).
Guessing the process is: Intake, weight/temp, aestheticize, (vet or licensed tech, I hope) label (cats have stickers and cages/carriers have matching sticker), shave, spay/neuter (again, vet does that), then stitch, vaccinate, chip, check for fleas/ear mites, return to cage.
All for $100 —I’ve had my entire feral colony spayed/neutered over the past 5 years (12 cats). No way could I afford to do that using my small animal vet ($400 +).
But the public vet probably cuts into the profits of the established vets since people like me have a choice.
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Vets out of school want to work 4 days a week and bring home six figures. The corporations that own vet practices need to hire veterinarians (there’s a lot of turnover) and want to make a profit. It’s not just vets. Every time a technician comes to do annual maintenance on the HVAC they try to sell me at least three things. The local company was bought by a corporation a few years ago and prices have steadily risen. Same with my trash hauler.
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paying staff a livable wage with benefits might have a claim on some of that money, also the cost of doing business has continued to increase, insurance and utilities have gone up for them just as for every one
Also if a vet is doing farm/ranch calls that former in old days $3,000 pickup truck used to haul all that stuff with them now starts at $100,000 plus then add the equipment and stuff could easily add another few hundred thousand dollars. I have always been surprised at the amount of equipment and drugs they carry.
I had a service company once, our trucks back in the 1980s cost about $7500 then we stocked those trucks with up to $100,000 in service parts so that the repair could be accomplished without delay. Most of our clients were on service agreements so expected interrupted service.
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All but a few of the small animal vet practices in my area have been bought out by big conglomerates and the prices went up immediately.
I’m fortunate to use a practice for large and small animals that’s still privately owned and who offers excellent large animal emergency service. The downside is that I’m about 45 minutes from the practice and a farm call is nearly $200 (double that for an emergency). The practice also charges for individual services, such as vaccines, health checks and so on…and they have a per-minute charge for the time the vet is here on the property. The per-minute charge really adds up but the attending vet has taken it easy on me with that a number of times, charging me less than he actually worked.
Small animal costs have increased as well, but it’s the price I’ll pay for very good veterinary service. I do think, however, that I might not be able to get another dog once my two senior pugs are gone.
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We had a big ice storm here a couple of weeks ago with extended power outage (3-4 days). When my vet was here and we were chit chatting about the storm, generators, etc., she casually mentioned the $$5-figure amount of vaccines she had in her freezer that she was worried about losing if the generator had failed. That helped put into perspective just how much overhead she carries. She has a couple of part-time office assistants/techs who do everything from billing to assist with in-house dentals, x-rays, etc., but most of her costs are in her clinic building, supplies, and her van- which gets pricey given the number of miles on dirt roads she puts on it.
She’s a solo practitioner and I am thankful every time I see her that in addition to her physical clinic, she still does farm/emergency calls and arranges coverage when she’s out of town. She’s had a vet student intern with her for periods of time, but was telling me she can’t find a grad that’s willing to move to rural Vermont more permanently to join the practice (high cost of living despite lack of amenities and young people). When I no longer have access to a vet who does emergency calls, that will be the end of horses for me.
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we just got a horse back from emergency colic surgery with eight days stay at the vet cost was less than a similar surgery on wife’s German Shepherd Dog, dog was more expensive
Horse was about $11,000 Dog was over $15,000
Horse vet was great, they did say obtaining staff was going to be their downfall as few people were wanting to work rotational shifts including weekends, nor could they find staff to work only shifts that included weekends
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I think a lot of what is driving the price increases on the small animal side is the corporotization of SA practices.
They set general protocols for things like vaccines, screening tests, etc. to maximize profits, and corporate sets the pricing on everything. And if the DVM employee doesn’t push all the bells and whistles and fails to meet the production numbers set by their contract, they get their pay docked.
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Additionally, the cost of everything in the medical realm has gone up ridiculously (and wait till the tariffs kick in!)
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Then there’s this thing called “standard of care”, which is a mixed blessing. It means that the DVM is held to a certain level of expertise and care for an animal.
Used to be judged on the local level; now it’s national.
Which means that it is expected that the DVM in West Hillsville should be doing what the DVM in Manhattan is doing, wrt all the bells and whistles. All the in house lab equipment, the ultrasound, radiography, etc. That stuff costs $$$$ both to purchas and to maintain. And if you’re not running x number of tests/month on that chemistry analyzer, you’re losing money on it. Vet techs come and go because they’re not paid anything near what they’re worth, but to keep them, you need the income to cover salary and benefits.
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On the LA side, new grads are busting their ass working long hours in ofen less than ideal circumstances, being on call frequently, and getting paid less than their classmates who went into SA, and who also actually get time off because there are so many emergency clinics now. So they go over to the Dark Side, bcause they’d like to pay off their student loans before they retire.
If a DVM wants to open a LA practice, there’s a ton of equipment, most of which is $$$, to buy–truck, portable radiography, ultrasound, endoscope, dental tools, etc.
The aforementioned drug/vaccine inventory, surgical supplies, and so forth.
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An office staff, or at least an answering service.
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I wish I knew what the answer was.
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Veterinary care is a bargain when compared to human medical care. In my opinion the cost differences are largely due to human health care insurance coverages of various types, and somewhat facetiously, few people will choose to euthanize Mom rather than choosing surgery.
There will never be widespread health insurance for animals with enough customers to make it feasible, and veterinarians fees will continue way upward. Human doctor fees have done the same; we just don’t realize it because of the insurance buffer between what we pay and the actual fee.
Just look at the technology that a single equine vet carries around today in her truck, and her base clinic, like my vets, has a lab, a pharmacy, a small fortune in specialized imaging equipment, and stalls for equine inpatients. All that technology is paid for by client fees.
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My friends who have insurance for their dogs (and their dogs are “frequent fliers”) have praised their pet insurance. Many say it’s better than their own insurance! When I had my last dog, it was less common–do people in this thread have insurance and is it beneficial?
I hope you’re not accusing the Large Animal vets of price-gouging 
My take is their costs for supplies - vaccines, equipment - have gone up right along with everything for everyone else.
Purdue (1h South of me) has had trouble graduating LA vets for several years now.
Recent grads end up doing Smalls for a lot of reasons.
Primarily because the clients come to them & hours are generally routine. Only a few 24H Emergency vets for the cat & dog clients, while equine vets are expected to be On Call 24/7/365.
No trekking from farm call to farm call, rarely near each other, at all hours.
My vet routinely posts articles about the alarmingly high suicide rate among large animal practitioners.
Considering my personal experiences with horse owners who don’t keep even minimal first aid kits, don’t maintain a regular vaccine schedule for their horses, but expect a vet they haven’t ever used to be available for an emergency, that’s got to be stressful.
And often that emergent care needed is the result of Wait & See that should never have been.
Comparing the cost of care for my cats, it’s still cheaper to have all 3 of mine seen annually for vax (the Once a Year was vet’s suggestion) & an expert once-over.
By maintaining that schedule & professional relationship, I know if there is an emergency, my vet will do their damnedest to get to me.
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It is shocking how the prices have gone up from 30 yrs ago but if you consider the cost of healthcare, saving for retirement and all their other costs to run a practice it must be insane.
We KNOW there is a crisis coming with a shortage of vets. The answer is building a very strong immune system, being diligent in injury prevention where you can, avoiding colic and laminitis meaning keeping them moving and watching insulin.
And we probably have another crisis coming soon with owners unable to afford their horses.
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Who can blame them when their education just to practice costs (on average) in the $200K range and often times more, with average student loans of nearly $175k. That means that most vets will be paying off student loans until they retire.
4 x 10 hour days? Why shouldn’t they want that since many also have on-call hours? So they can actually have a life as well. But certainly, by the time they are no longer new staff, they should expect that they won’t have to work 75 hours a week just to live.
Well…30 years is a LONG time. Are you looking at other costs that have risen over the last 30 years too? For example…education?
This is not, of course, limited to veterinary education but college education has long been outpacing inflation. It’s a known crisis. It is starting to come down now but I wouldn’t expect it to ever go below the inflation rate.
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Just reiterating all of this with the quote.
Student loans are a huge contributor as well. It is incredibly expensive to become a veterinarian. And we’re now running into an issue in the industry where being an academic veterinarian is unappealing to many because the pay is so poor and quality of life is worse relative to being in private practice (from the small animal perspective, anyway). We are losing people to private practice who might otherwise be educating the next generation of vets.
I wish I knew what the answer was, too. As a primarily ER clinician right now (though not for much longer), I frequently have clients who are very upset about the cost of care - and I get it. It’s expensive, though less so at the hospital I’m affiliated with than many others. But I’ve told people before - I don’t make production. I don’t care how much money you spend in your visit with me - I just want what is best for your pet and your family at that time, whether that’s the “gold standard” approach or not.
From my perspective: I have 2 doctorates and get paid $44,000/year before taxes. I work 60-80 hours a week, and it’s not uncommon for me to work markedly more than that. Now, my salary is admittedly low because I’m pursuing specialization and am in the first stages of that, but keep in mind that this is the highest salary for new grads who are doing the path I’m doing. And we have student loans, rent, costs of existing, etc.
I don’t know what the answers are. But I fear things will get worse before they get better.
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Retired medical college faculty member here. We had several students with DVM degrees who made the decision to forego their careers as veterinarians to earn MD degrees. Somewhere in the conversation about why the career switch money always came up. But not related to personal income, which I found interesting. The money subject involved having to euthanize animals who they knew they could save, but clients didn’t want to spend the money (or have the money to spend) for life-saving treatments.
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Not opining whether it is right or wrong. It is different. 40 years ago vets graduated with huge debt and worked until all the calls were done. Depressingly little in the winter and way too much in the spring. For less than you could make in industry with a bachelors degree. In most places for most people those days are over. No loss! Large animal vets neither work 8 hour days nor 10 hour days. A 4 day week means that they are available for calls on 4 days. Small animal vets are more likely to have a set schedule. Work life balance are the buzz words today. Which is good for vets. But does require hiring more vets to provide full coverage. And increases the cost to the consumer.
But they didn’t graduate with “huge debt” like they do now. Salaries haven’t risen with education costs.
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Not at all comparable to the cost of a veterinary education today.
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Gosh, this really drives it home. I wish you a long, successful career and hope it becomes manageable enough it’s something you can realistically pursue while accomplishing all your non-work goals too.
I have to say, I have a PhD but was clear from the application stage through my dissertation defense that I planned to do applied/industry research, not go the academic route. I got all kinds of pressure and guilt-tripping to change my mind, but I knew what path I wanted to be on. It’s true that the pay has been a lot more lucrative given the path I chose, but I am also so much happier with the research I’ve done than I would have been if I was still in the publish-or-perish rut of trying to milk my dissertation dataset for more papers (which my advisor is still doing, now almost 15 years after I finished),
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That inflation graph of college costs is WILD. It’s like the cost of healthcare and actually makes me curious to see that one. Wow. Ugh. Good point on yeah, 30 yrs ago is a long time ago. How can eggs still be so cheap really? I buy pasture raised and still think they are a bargain. If everyone bought ethically raised meat/eggs/milk and paid a whole lot more maybe we wouldn’t be so obese on this planet.
Oh, well there’s the food industry horror of ultraprocessed food - worse than the opioid fraud inflicted on society. OK, not to derail this thread.
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