The new report from the CATalyst Council describes pet ownership inflation in painful detail. It is not your imagination. Your budget is struggling. Owning pets now costs 32% more. The cost of everything — especially veterinary care — is way up. According to the new report, veterinary services now cost 51.4% above pre-COVID levels — nearly 2x the pace of overall inflation (which is already terrible). Let’s dig into the data.
What to Know About This Data Set
This new report features data that compares what things were like in 2019 — pre-COVID — to how things look now.
As you may recall, demand for veterinary services skyrocketed during the lock-down phase of the pandemic. After that huge rush, things have fallen off dramatically, as I wrote about recently with the number of veterinary clients, veterinary invoices, and veterinary patients are down year-over-year by more than 2%.
I’m sure that everything costing more is causing people to make difficult decisions about what’s absolutely necessary and things they simply cannot afford.
Here are the big headlines!
Owning a Pet Now Costs 32% More
Owning a pet now costs 32% more than it did before COVID. The bulk of those increased costs, though, come from the rising costs of veterinary care as noted in the graphic below that shows cumulative inflation since December 2019:
Veterinary services + 51.4%
Pet services (non-veterinary) +39.7%
Pet food and treats +24.2%
Pets / supplies +13.1%
Pet Services Inflation ~3x the Rate of Pet Product Inflation
The rate of inflation for pet services is 3x that for pet products. Gah!
The April 2026 Consumer Price Index shows that the current rate of pet ownership inflation comes mostly from
Pet services (non-veterinary) +6.6%
Veterinary services +5.5%
—
Pet food and treats +2.2%
Pets / supplies +1.9%
Veterinary Inflation Stands Alone
That big gap with veterinary care up 51.4% since 2019 is a tough one for a lot of people, including me. I can easily imagine having to make the decision to have fewer dogs (maybe even smaller dogs) in the future — purely for financial reasons.
The report says …
“Vet services have outpaced everything in the pet basket. Up +51.4% since 2019 — nearly 2x the rate of overall Consumer Price Index (+28.5%) and more than 2x the next-highest pet category…”