Zoetis, one of the largest animal health companies in the world, just cut its own 2026 forecast because fewer pets are making it into the exam room and the ones who do are approving less once they're there. The company posted second-quarter revenue of $2.47 billion, essentially flat year over year and down slightly once currency effects are stripped out, and lowered its full-year outlook to an organic revenue decline of 1% to 3%, reversing what it had expected to be a growth year, according to Reuters. CEO Kristin Peck told investors the drivers were straightforward: declining clinic visits, price increases that have outpaced general inflation, and pet owners who are simply more selective about what they say yes to.
Why Fewer Pets Are Making It Through the Exam Room Door
The companion-animal segment, Zoetis's largest business, fell 5% to $1.71 billion in the quarter, missing analyst estimates. Peck described a multiyear decline in veterinary clinic visits rather than a one-quarter dip, paired with pet owners shifting their spending toward urgent and emergency care while pulling back on premium preventive and chronic-care products, according to a breakdown of the earnings call from Vet Candy. The company also flagged new competition chipping into its dermatology franchise, long dominated by Apoquel and Cytopoint, as a further drag on the quarter.
Not every signal pointed the same direction. Diagnostics grew 12% and livestock grew 11% for Zoetis, and peer IDEXX Laboratories raised its own annual profit forecast the same week on steady demand for diagnostics and higher testing volumes, per Reuters. The pullback looks concentrated in routine, discretionary companion-animal visits rather than diagnostics or testing overall.
Practices Can't Advertise Their Way Out of a Cost Problem
A multiyear decline in clinic visits paired with pickier spending is a demand problem a practice cannot advertise its way out of if the actual barrier is cost, distance, or the hassle of the visit itself. Nearly half of pet owners have delayed veterinary care over cost in the past year, and Zoetis's earnings call is the clearest signal yet that the pattern is showing up in a major manufacturer's own numbers, not just in surveys. For practices, that means client conversations increasingly need to explain the why behind a recommendation rather than assuming a pet owner will approve routine preventive work by default.
The format of the visit matters too. When the barrier is logistics, not the medicine itself, a practice that can deliver routine preventive care outside the exam room removes the friction Zoetis's numbers say is keeping pets from showing up at all.