The Number of Pets Receiving Veterinary Care Has Been
Decreasing in the 21st Century!

by Malcolm Riordan, DVM

For at least the last ten years companion animal veterinarians have seen an alarming decline in the number of pet visits at veterinary clinics. This is despite the pet population having increased during the same period.

In 2011 the Bayer Veterinary Care Usage Study, a study by Bayer Animal Health, the National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues, and Brakke Consulting, set out to explore why, and to measure what pet owners thought about the need for veterinary services and whether pets were getting adequate care.

The researchers reviewed data from veterinary economics articles and journals, interviews with veterinary clinic owners, interviews with dog and cat owners, and an online survey of over 2,000 pet owners.

From the data gathered and analyzed, six factors emerged that contributed to the decline in client/pet visits:

1. The recession. 

Althea Lila Jessie Baron Krystal

This was the first thing that came to veterinarians' minds when thinking about the decline in pet visits. While the poor economy and resulting unemployment have negative impact on spending for veterinary services, and despite what many veterinarians believe, the recession is not the primary reason for the drop. Patient visits had started declining even before the recession. (Who could deny that as wealth distribution continually widens - while losing our dominant middle class - that the US is moving more and more towards being a third world country where the masses cannot afford veterinary care.)

2. Splitting off of veterinary services. 

There is an increase in the number and type of places that pet owners can get care — clinics located inside pet stores, increasing availability of emergency clinics (convenient for night and weekend veterinary services), and parking-lot vaccine clinics — all examples of fewer visits being spread out among more practices. Also mentioned is that more pets than ever are adopted from shelters. These dogs and cats have received their initial vaccinations, have been spayed or neutered, micro-chipped, and wormed - all before being put up for adoption. This is done to insure that those entry level services get done.

3. Dr. Google, DVM.  

Many pet owners surveyed said they consulted web sources regarding pet health issues rather than calling or visiting their veterinarians. (It's pretty easy to find yourself Googled up into the wrong tree.)

4. Inadequate understanding of the need for routine care. 

Pet owners surveyed primarily associated veterinary care with vaccinations rather than examinations and education targeted directly to a pet and its owner's exact and unique circumstances. Another likely reason for fewer visits is that vaccine protocols have changed over the last dozen or more years: the now almost universal awareness and availability of vaccinations that are actually demonstrated to protect for three years, as opposed to previous vaccines which only were asserted to be protective for one year.

5. Sticker shock. 

Many pet owners expressed surprise and frustration at the prices at veterinary clinics and said they didn't see the value for the price paid.  (I have to agree here. If every visit to the vet, even minor ones, turns out to be a university hospital or Mayo Clinic experience - with costs to match – pet owners will not feel they can afford the solid, regular, trustworthy, and informative relationship with their veterinarian.)

6. Feline resistance/Canine loss of composure  

Because many cats aggressively resist being put in carriers and being transported to a veterinary clinic and show signs of stress during visits, many cat owners deferred taking their pet to the veterinarian. Similarly, but with less human bloodshed, some dogs get overly stimulated by the other animals in the clinic and being handled/restrained by veterinary staff. These dogs may respond fearfully (urinating, defecating, struggling to escape) or aggressively (resisting, fighting, biting).  Some dog owners are scarcely able to control their dog even at home in calm, familiar circumstances - there is little chance for success when the first obedience lesson of the year begins – loudly - in the waiting room at the vet clinic!

Many pet owners simply don't understand the need for routine care throughout their pets' lives. They think of the veterinary clinic as a place for pets that need shots, not regular care. The bottom line in all of the above is that pets are not getting the care they need.

More than one third of pet owners surveyed said that if it were not for vaccinations, they wouldn't take their pet to the veterinarian at all.
One fourth said they thought routine checkups were unnecessary. These pet owners then miss the opportunity to learn how to take better care of their pet — for example even just feeding the best kind of diet or keeping their dog or cat on a parasite prevention program tailored to their area and their environment – many pets aren't getting even the minimum, basic level of care they need. 

Pet owners with 'indoor pets' believed their pets needed less care than outdoor pets and were less likely to have visited the veterinarian in the past year. In fact, 15 percent of pet owners said they thought indoor pets didn't need checkups at all.

More surprising is the fact that pet owners with older animals were also less likely to have seen the veterinarian in the past year.

On a positive note, the study's participants did realize that education can make a difference in the care they can then provide their pets. A large percentage of dog and cat owners said they would take their pet to the veterinarian more often if they really believed the pet needed exams more often, if it would help their pet live longer, and if they knew they could prevent problems and expensive treatment later.  A few pet owner attitudes are tabulated below and are quite interesting, check it out.

Pokes and Marx Ginger

Having a good working veterinarian/owner/patient relationship up and running from the start is probably the single most effective tool for a dog's/cat's health.  Veterinarians who do not see this as priority one and owners who do not understand its importance are both are responsible for increasing the risk and occurrences of pet illness that will go without recognition, treatment, and relief.  Whether these owners are willfully ignorant, willfully cheap, or are truly low-informed, truly broke, or their veterinarians continue to insist that it has to be ivory tower veterinary medicine or nothing, the pets neglected will all suffer just the same and unnecessarily.

Woods Rafter Cat Image on Banner by Malcolm Riordan.