Edition 1.1
Cheating Pet Owners: Are Veterinary Visits Really in Decline?
In the last decade, we’ve heard ongoing buzz within the veterinary industry that clinic visits are decreasing. We conducted market research to determine the frequency of pet owners seeking veterinary care and to better understand who is decreasing their veterinary visits and why.
Brief Topics:
- Historical Comparison: 1999 vs. 2019
- Veterinary Visits Are Declining: Myth or Fact?
- Are Pet Owners Cheating on Their Veterinarians?
- How Multiple Care Sources Are Impacting Private Practice
- Is Private Practice Still the Standard for Primary Care?
- The Real Reasons Pet Owners Are Switching
- Why Are Some Pet Owners Skipping Out on Care?
- One-Size-Fits-All Does Not Fit Pet Owners
- Millennials Can’t Be Blamed for Everything
- Human Healthcare Is Impacting Veterinary Healthcare
- The Internet’s Role in Your Patients’ Health
Brief Format
All briefs are available in both an online and printable PDF format.
Veterinary Action Plans
Diggo briefs go beyond data. This brief offers exclusive veterinary action plans that you can begin implementing immediately to retain clients and limit the use of other care providers.
Objective
The primary objective of this brief was to understand the frequency and drivers of visits to private practice clinics versus other types of veterinary clinics.
Three key areas of exploration:
- Influence of attitudes about preventive care and nutrition, perceptions of pet health and pet anxiety, needs for convenience and lower costs, etc.
- Differences by pet owner age generation and cats vs. dogs
- Role of the internet and perceptions of the value of Dr. Google vs. veterinarians
Methodology & Analysis
This online survey was fielded in Fall 2018, with a large sample size of 1,500 pet owners balanced across US geography. This sample size allows for 95% confidence with a margin of error of +/- 2.53. Attitudinal questions were asked using a 6-point Likert rating scale. 70% are dog owners and 65% are cat owners.