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Disclaimer: My partner works as a small animal surgeon, and I'm honestly appalled by seeing some of the comments asking for more government intervention in here

Disclaimer: My partner works as a small animal surgeon, and I'm honestly appalled by seeing some of the comments asking for more government intervention in here. Private equity scooping up veterinary practices makes sense - it's a good investment. It's the same way PE firms will pool together a bunch of discrete dentist offices. I see many posters in here talking about how it's "rent-seeking" behavior, but frankly, these services are in demand and consolidating them is an increase in market efficiency. It's still good business to open up new clinics, even if the end goal is getting bought out (the standard practice for 95%+ of companies for which everyone here works for or is the beneficiary of). If people are willing to spend more, then nothing really changed. If anything, goods and services were mispriced beforehand. If they raise the prices too high, nobody can afford the vet services and they will go out of business. If they make prices too low, we end up in a UK-style NHS situation where your dog's cancer is in line to get treated 8 months after they die, and they go out of business. Prices going up is natural for a restricted supply of extremely skilled labor (yes, you still need surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, drugs, human-tier equipment) and growing demand for the services (people having more pets in lieu of children in western countries). People were getting "better deals" before and are now being priced appropriately. A big trend here is the increase in desire to spend on pets, particularly in the US, the richest country in the world. Yes, consolidation is one part of it, but we have to look at demographic trends as well. More and more people are spending more and more money on pets (in lieu of children). And yet, the increase in supply of skilled veterinarians has not increased nearly as much. Obviously, investment firms need their cut, but prices go up while owned by an investment firm does not make it evil, nor does it not make sense or outrageous. What might actually be considered outrageous around here is spending $20k on surgery for a domestic pet (common occurence as far as I can tell in a metropolitan area). Lastly - there's actually a competitive healthcare market here! I have enjoyed being able to peek behind the curtain and look at what procedures of this scale should really cost, e.g. we still need the same training, people, equipment, and time relative to human medicine (arguably with a much lower tolerance of risk), but the prices are...... reasonable. $10-20k for a crazy surgery would be highly affordable for a human, and these PE firms are actually competing with each other for clients for these expensive procedures. It makes me wish for a similar competitive pricing landscape for humans - even if they are PE owned. The last thing anyone needs when caring for their pet is a government bureaucrat handing out human-medicine style hospital monopolies to a "partnered provider" knighted by the government which will force a 100x billing charge to bill the govt and make it illegal to not have pet insurance while driving your premiums up 100x over the next 30 years.

SoftTalker 2y ago
> people having more pets in lieu of children This is the weird thing to me. When I was a kid, a pet was more or less a thing. You took care of it, but if it got really sick or badly injured you put it down and maybe got another one. The idea of people spending 5 or 6 figures on pet health care is rather mind-boggling.
- fsn4dN69ey 2y ago
  In total, for a 15-year old cat, I have spent $8,000+ USD. He plays a large emotional part in my life and I don't think I would spare any expenses given the opportunity. It is worth it.
snapetom 2y ago
Married to a boarded vet of over 20 years. She's been through the era of working for privately owned clinics and now the PE-dominated landscape. 100% agree with you. The comments here range from short-sighted to plain-old stupid, especially those complaining about costs. What many fail to realize is that vet care went through a professionalization in the 80's and 90's. Boards and specializations that humans had like dermatology and cardiology cropped up and really exploded in the past 20 years or so. Along with that was quality of care, and along with that, cost. What frequently happens is this: If you go to a clinic with an old-school vet, he'll charge $300 for a dog spay. Down the road with the younger vet, she'll charge $600, but that's because she's running a wider blood panel with a course of anti-biotics. She won't do the surgery without it because research shows that course improves survivability by 50%. Which are you going to choose? Don't kid yourself in thinking the quality of care is the same. Business and veterinary schools have researched this to death. You can't cheap out and get the same care. Maybe you'll find a young vet that's willing to skip the extras, but many won't. The worst thing to happen to vet care is Yelp and Dr. Google who emboldens self-righteous hacks to complain to state boards at every little thing they think the vet did wrong. Finally tons of people flat out belittle the cost of labor. Vets go to school a minimum of 4 years post college. They can practice right out of vet school, but many go through an internship these days. If you go to a specialist, that's an extra 1-2 years of internships and another 2-3 years of a residency and a board exam, too. On top of that, many states require veterinary assistants to be licensed, which is equivalent to an AA. In practice, most have bachelor's these days and we've known a few with master's degrees. Meanwhile, people bitch and moan here for $500 a night of emergency care, ignoring the fact you're hiring a team of highly trained and educated people to take care of your precious Fluffy.

SoftTalker 2y ago

> people having more pets in lieu of children This is the weird thing to me. When I was a kid, a pet was more or less a thing. You took care of it, but if it got really sick or badly injured you put it down and maybe got another one. The idea of people spending 5 or 6 figures on pet health care is rather mind-boggling.

fsn4dN69ey 2y ago
In total, for a 15-year old cat, I have spent $8,000+ USD. He plays a large emotional part in my life and I don't think I would spare any expenses given the opportunity. It is worth it.

snapetom 2y ago

Married to a boarded vet of over 20 years. She's been through the era of working for privately owned clinics and now the PE-dominated landscape. 100% agree with you. The comments here range from short-sighted to plain-old stupid, especially those complaining about costs. What many fail to realize is that vet care went through a professionalization in the 80's and 90's. Boards and specializations that humans had like dermatology and cardiology cropped up and really exploded in the past 20 years or so. Along with that was quality of care, and along with that, cost. What frequently happens is this: If you go to a clinic with an old-school vet, he'll charge $300 for a dog spay. Down the road with the younger vet, she'll charge $600, but that's because she's running a wider blood panel with a course of anti-biotics. She won't do the surgery without it because research shows that course improves survivability by 50%. Which are you going to choose? Don't kid yourself in thinking the quality of care is the same. Business and veterinary schools have researched this to death. You can't cheap out and get the same care. Maybe you'll find a young vet that's willing to skip the extras, but many won't. The worst thing to happen to vet care is Yelp and Dr. Google who emboldens self-righteous hacks to complain to state boards at every little thing they think the vet did wrong. Finally tons of people flat out belittle the cost of labor. Vets go to school a minimum of 4 years post college. They can practice right out of vet school, but many go through an internship these days. If you go to a specialist, that's an extra 1-2 years of internships and another 2-3 years of a residency and a board exam, too. On top of that, many states require veterinary assistants to be licensed, which is equivalent to an AA. In practice, most have bachelor's these days and we've known a few with master's degrees. Meanwhile, people bitch and moan here for $500 a night of emergency care, ignoring the fact you're hiring a team of highly trained and educated people to take care of your precious Fluffy.