The recently released PetSmart Charities-Gallup State of Pet Care Study revealed the rising costs of veterinary care are pressing many U.S. pet owners to seek more convenient and affordable options for their cats and dogs. Those may not always mean the traditional trip to the vet, and it's exactly why PetSmart Charities has committed significant funding to support for innovative care models.
According to the study, about four in 10 pet owners say they would be interested in each of three non-traditional veterinary services — including community clinics, in-home visits or telemedicine. Accessibility to services such as these remains a barrier and more can be done to connect pet parents with solutions that meet their needs.
Despite this interest, relatively few reported having used these avenues of care, with only 16% of pet parents having ever visited a community clinic, 8% participating in a telehealth appointment and 8% receiving a home vet visit. This could be from a lack of services available, and why we continue to encourage local leaders to identify and/or create new models based on specific needs of their community.
Pet parents across demographic groups — regardless of age, race, and income — express interest in non-traditional care options. However, groups who were least likely to visit the veterinarian in the past year express above-average interest in community clinics. These included more than 48% of pet owners aged 18 to 29, and 47% of those living in households earning less than $60,000 annually. There are not significant differences by subgroups in interest for home visits and telehealth appointments. Increasing the availability of telemedicine may provide pet parents with a lower cost option or reduce geographic barriers to accessing care.
Among those pet owners who previously declined traditional care because it was not practical for them or their pets, 46% say they were not offered a more convenient option.
Pet Parents Also Consult Non-Veterinary Sources for Care
When their pets are sick or injured, most pet owners (81%) still seek guidance from a vet, either in person or remotely. But vets are not the sole source of information for many pet owners — 44% of pet owners say they consult online resources for their pet’s health, and 22% seek advice from friends or family. While these sources can be of help, there are times when a health issue could become more significant without appropriate guidance.
Just over one in six (17%) rely solely on non-veterinary sources for pet health advice. This is especially true of groups who are most likely to say they have declined or foregone veterinary care in the past, including young, low-income or Black pet owners.
Bottom Line
As pet healthcare costs rise and more pet owners make the difficult choice to forgo needed care, we need a broad coalition of stakeholders in business, philanthropic and nonprofit spaces to advocate for and create solutions. Pet parents are interested in non-traditional care options that meet the needs of their pets and budgets.
Use of these types of services remains limited, perhaps because they are not widely available or not discussed as alternatives to traditional veterinary office visits. These unique services and models can mean more veterinary teams won’t have to turn away patients due to finances, and instead offer viable solutions. Expanding community-based, mobile, or telehealth solutions could help bridge this care gap and ensure more pets receive the treatment they need. And that’s good for pets, for people and for veterinary teams that want to help.
Learn more about how the PetSmart Charities-Gallup State of Pet Care Study works.
Survey Methods
Results for the PetSmart Charities-Gallup State of Pet Care study are based on a combined web- and mail-based survey conducted with 2,498 dog and cat owners in the United States. Gallup surveyed 2,307 U.S. adults who indicated they currently owned at least one dog or cat via a web-based survey Nov. 13-20, 2024. Gallup also surveyed an additional 191 dog and cat owners via a mail-based survey Dec. 2, 2024-Jan. 9, 2025, to reach pet owners who may not have access to the internet.
Gallup used the Gallup Panel to randomly select respondents to participate in the study. The Gallup Panel is a probability-based panel of U.S. adults who are randomly selected to join the panel primarily through address-based sampling (ABS), as well as random-digit-dialing (RDD) telephone surveys.
Gallup weighted the obtained sample to match national demographics of gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education and region for the population of U.S. dog and cat owners. This was achieved by weighting all respondents who entered the survey — including those who indicated they did not currently own a dog or a cat — to demographic weighting targets of the total U.S. adult population, based on the 2024 U.S. Current Population Survey. Respondents who indicated they did not currently own a dog or cat were then removed from the dataset prior to analysis.
For results based on the total sample of 2,498 U.S. dog and cat owners, the margin of sampling error is ±2.6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Margins of error for subgroups are larger. The reported margin of sampling error includes computed design effects for weighting. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
