Veterinary clinic visit volume has been declining for five consecutive years. A new report from the CATalyst Council suggests that trend is not a blip. It is baked into the demographics, and practices that plan for a quick rebound may be in for a rough decade.

The report, titled "Puppocalpyse, Kitten Craze and the Expectations Reset," identifies a clear culprit: new puppy visits have fallen to 62% of their 2018/2019 baseline, driven down every year since the COVID-era adoption boom. Because those first-year puppy visits establish the long-term visit cadence for each birth-year cohort, the impact compounds. Fewer puppies entering the system today means fewer adult dogs coming in for wellness, sick visits, and preventive care for the next 13 to 14 years.

The industry is generally planning for veterinary visits to return to 2% to 3% annual growth as soon as next year. The demographics do not support that view. We put the realistic long-term range for U.S. clinical visit growth at -2% to 0% through 2030.
Jon Ayers, Chair, CATalyst Council Market Insights Committee

For practice leaders who have been waiting for the market to correct itself, this report is a signal to stop waiting and start adapting.

Why Puppy Visits Dropped and Why It Matters

The CATalyst Council report points to two likely contributors to the puppy visit decline. First, veterinary service inflation has outpaced general consumer inflation since the pandemic, making care less affordable for younger pet owners who adopted during the boom. Second, rising single-family home prices may have made dog ownership itself less attainable for that same demographic.

The result is that four consecutive below-baseline puppy cohorts are now working their way through the system. Every year those dogs age without a full vaccine and wellness history, the suppressive effect on visit volume deepens. This is not a problem practices can market their way out of with one campaign. The underlying population of dogs receiving regular veterinary care is simply smaller than it was, and it will remain that way for years.

The feline side of the picture is notably different. Kitten visits are running 8% to 10% above pre-pandemic levels and have held steady for four years. That growth has not been enough to offset the canine decline, because cats account for less than one-third of total veterinary visits. But it does point to where opportunity lives.

As Gina Fortunato, executive director of the CATalyst Council, puts it:

Cats are the one segment of this market that is growing, and the practices and groups that get serious about feline care now are the ones positioned for the next decade. Feline-specific marketing and lower-stress, feline-friendly experiences are the largest organic growth opportunities most practices have.
Gina Fortunato, Executive Director, CATalyst Council

What this means for how you reach pet owners

A flat visit environment signals that the traditional model, waiting for clients to book, is leaving care on the table, not just revenue. The pet owners who stopped coming in after the pandemic did not stop loving their animals. Many of them ran into barriers: cost, logistics, the stress of transporting a cat who hates the carrier, or simply the friction of getting an appointment in an overbooked schedule.

Growth for most practices is going to come from closing that gap. The CATalyst Council data points specifically to feline visits as the one segment running above pre-pandemic levels, and it is not hard to see why: cat owners are motivated, but cats are notoriously difficult to bring in. Research published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science found cats examined at home showed significantly lower stress than those seen in a clinic. Lower stress means better compliance, better diagnostics, and clients who are more likely to follow through on care.

The practices positioned to grow through this decade are the ones expanding their definition of where care happens. In-home vet tech visits for wellness checks, post-op rechecks, chronic disease monitoring, and senior pet assessments can reach exactly the clients the CATalyst Council says are drifting away: cost-sensitive, access-limited, or simply burned out on the logistics of clinic visits. For cats especially, home-based care is not a convenience add-on. It is often the only context in which the animal can be meaningfully assessed.

Feline-friendly certification, lower-stress handling protocols, and outreach to lapsed cat owners are concrete growth levers. Pairing those with in-home service options extends that reach further.

What this means for you

  • Do not plan for a rebound the data does not support. Build your model around flat visit volume through at least 2030. Practices that treat this as a temporary dip will be caught flat-footed.
  • Invest in feline care now. Fear-Free and cat-friendly certification, feline-specific appointment blocks, and proactive outreach to cat owners are the clearest organic growth opportunity the market is currently offering.
  • Rethink where care happens. In-home wellness checks, post-op rechecks, and chronic disease monitoring can reach lapsed clients who are not coming back to the clinic. That's incremental visit volume on top of what you already have, not a replacement for it.
  • Make access easier for the clients you already have. Reducing friction, through flexible scheduling, telemedicine triage, and in-home options, converts existing client relationships into more consistent care rather than losing them to attrition.
  • Pursue lapsed cat owners specifically. The CATalyst Council data suggests cats are the one growth segment. Many of those owners stopped coming in because the experience was too stressful for their cat. Lower-stress alternatives close that gap.

Vet med has navigated hard cycles before. The profession is full of people who find a way through. This one just requires reading the data honestly and building toward pet owners where they actually are.