Editor’s note: This story is part of a joint investigation with the Fifth Estate, Marketplace, and Radio-Canada’s Enquete and La Facture looking at the changing pet health sector in Canada.
When Maja Terzic brought her sick cat to the vet, she agreed to a few hundred dollars in blood work to hopefully find out what was wrong with him. Guppy was then whisked away to a back room.
“I was just kind of in the dark, I didn’t know what was happening,” Terzic said.
An hour later, she was handed a $1,100 bill, full of tests and treatments she says she never agreed to.
“My stomach literally dropped. I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to do the credit card not the debit card today,” said Terzic, who had no idea the clinic was owned by the largest veterinary consolidator in Canada, VetStrategy.
Terzic’s experience mirrors that of a rising number of pet owners who say they’ve seen a dramatic increase in their veterinary bills in the past few years — a trend that’s arisen alongside the practice of multinational corporations quietly buying up independent vet clinics across the country.
Before 2010, almost all veterinary clinics in Canada were owned by the vet you visited. Today, more than half of emergency and specialty hospitals and more than 20 per cent of all clinics are owned by six corporations.
The three biggest players in Canadian pet care are VetStrategy, VCA Canada and NVA Canada; between them, they own more than 600 clinics. The three companies are owned and operated by international conglomerates.
Hidden camera investigation
To see what type of care would be recommended and how much it would cost at corporate-run clinics, CBC’s Marketplace scheduled appointments at six different clinics across Toronto, all of them owned by VCA or VetStrategy. The majority of complaints Marketplace received were about the two chains.
Following consultations from veterinarians on how to design the spot check, Marketplace took Stella, a healthy four-year-old female Labrador retriever, to each clinic and described symptoms that suggested a possible urinary tract infection.
All of the veterinarians who saw Stella agreed, based on the description provided, that it seemed like the dog had a urinary tract infection. However, the treatment plans and the cost of the recommended care varied.
When it came to pricing, all of the clinics’ exam fees were within a similar range: $127 to $142 before tax.
But the prices for the diagnostic test, called a urinalysis, varied considerably — the lowest at $47 and the highest coming in at $175.
WATCH | Can you tell if your vet clinic is owned by a corporation?
Watch here as CBC Marketplace’s Charlsie Agro searches cross-country for answers.
Dr. Ivan Zak, a Moncton-based veterinarian, says this is an example of how corporate veterinary clinics often use “shoppable” and “non-shoppable” items to their advantage.
Veterinary clinics know that consumers call around to ask about exam fees, he says, but people are less likely to ask for price estimates on procedures or things like diagnostic tests.
Within the same corporation — VCA — the price for a urinalysis, done in-house, varied considerably between two clinics, with one charging $100 and another $175.
Based on a pricing document the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association provides to veterinarians — and obtained by Marketplace — the average urinalysis fee charged in Ontario in 2024 was $124. (The association calculates the average costs for treatments and procedures across the province, giving the figures to vets as a fee guide.)
Megan, a former VCA employee, whose name Marketplace changed to protect her identity, was provided a document by her clinic’s regional manager, that suggested several different price points for treatments and services.
This “creative pricing” model, she says, was put in place so that not all the prices were increasing by the same amount at the same time at the clinic. She says it was done deliberately to hide the increases from consumers, pointing to the two different urinalysis prices within the VCA clinics Marketplace visited as an example of creative pricing at work.
At one VetStrategy clinic, the price quoted to treat Stella climbed even higher when the veterinarian recommended an additional diagnostic test on top of the urinalysis.
The vet said she would collect urine for the urinalysis using a needle guided by an ultrasound machine. She then suggested also taking a couple of X-rays for an extra $380.
When the undercover team asked for the vet’s recommendation on whether X-rays were needed alongside the urinalysis, the corporate vet said it’s “not wrong to go either way.”
Zak questioned the need for the X-rays, saying the ultrasound used to collect the urine sample would already provide a visual of the bladder.
‘Economic euthanasia’
“I think the customers come to us to find out what’s the right thing to do, not what’s not the wrong thing to do,” Zak said, noting the rising cost of pet care is having an impact on people’s ability to own and care for a pet.
VetStrategy said their veterinarians abide by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association’s “code of ethics, which enshrines the concept of compassionate and impartial care” and that their veterinarians have the “clinical freedom” to decide how to address “an animal’s medical needs and an owner’s financial position.”
In a statement, VCA told Marketplace all its vets are trained to explore a range of treatment options with clients, including their costs and benefits — and also said vets are not encouraged to recommend unnecessary services.
Zak believes vet consolidators’ focus on profits and the accompanying price increases for treatments are having a negative impact on the industry overall.
“The danger there is that everybody starts comparing [themselves] to the clinic that is owned by the corporation and says, ‘OK, well, we can go that high,'” Zak said. “The worst part is what we call ‘economic euthanasia’ — when people can’t afford the treatment,” Zak said. “You know that you can save the pet, but you can’t treat it because the owner can’t afford it.”
What was made clear at her clinic, said Megan, is that the corporation’s main interest was profit.
“I think the people at the corporations at the top are so far removed from animals,” she said. “It’s not about animals to them.”
With respect to its rising prices, VCA Canada told Marketplace “veterinary services are in high demand and the level of care expected today is very different to a decade ago,” noting that the company invests in “state-of-the art equipment, technology, training and scientific research,” all while working “to keep veterinary care accessible.”
Rima, whose name we also agreed to change to protect her identity, worked at both VetStrategy and VCA. She says she noticed prices started to climb at the VetStrategy hospital after it was sold to international vet consolidator, IVC Evidensia, backed by private equity.
“We had five service fee increases within one year,” Rima said. Each increase was between three to six per cent, and she said no rationale was given to staff.
To her, the reason was clear: “It’s just a drive in revenue.”
VetStrategy says: “As with all industries,” costs have risen “rapidly,” something the company attributes to the “inflationary global economy.” It also noted that a shortage of veterinarians has meant the company had to improve pay and conditions to stay competitive in hiring.
Takeover lacking transparency
Out of the three corporations, only VCA brands its clinics. VetStrategy and NVA don’t, which means consumers may not know who’s really behind their pet’s care.
During the hidden camera clinic visits, there was no VetStrategy branding that identified the company as the owner; journalists had to ask at all three clinics. At one VetStrategy location, the vet simply said she didn’t own the clinic and didn’t provide any further information on who did own the clinic. At another, there was a sentence on the invoice received at the end of the visit that stated the clinic was owned by the company.
Marketplace also learned that in Moncton — one of the towns in which Dr. Zak owns a clinic — 45 per cent of the general practice clinics in the area were owned by VetStrategy, but there were no outside signs to signal the ownership.
Vet industry insiders told Marketplace they believe that lack of transparency is done on purpose.
“I think they’re hiding it,” Rima said. “I think that it’s so people don’t know,”
Marketplace obtained a 2019 document emailed to vet staff working at a clinic bought by VetStrategy in Manitoba that told staff that they should not “actively communicate to clients” about the buyout. The document goes on to say that they will create a “communication guide to use as a reference in the event that you are asked about the change.”
Terzic is one of those consumers who had no idea her vet clinic had been bought by VetStrategy. She says she would have liked to know about the corporate ownership of the clinic.
“I think it’s only fair to be honest with your customers and your clients, and then they can make an informed choice of where they want to go,” she said.
VetStrategy says that its “policy [is] to publicly announce when practices join the VetStrategy network” and that it updates its website with the names of the clinics it buys after the acquisition is completed.
NVA told Marketplace it keeps the name of local clinics unchanged after it buys them in an effort to “respect the heritage, culture and legacy that was built by the veterinarian.”
President of national veterinary association weighs
Marketplace spoke with Tim Arthur, president of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association about the concerns raised by veterinary staff and consumers about the growing presence of corporate-backed consolidators.
Arthur says he has no concerns about big business getting into pet care — he sold his practice to one and currently works part-time for two corporately owned clinics.
“It made huge stress-relieving sense to sell,” he said.
Not only did selling to a corporation fund Arthur’s retirement, he also believes it is welcomed by younger vets who want to practice medicine without the hassle of running a business.
Arthur said he doesn’t believe corporations are to blame for the rising cost of pet care.
“We have many, many factors in our business that are causing costs to go up,” he said. “Our costs of buying medications are going up. Our costs of servicing equipment, buying equipment.”
He said he hasn’t heard complaints from veterinary staff about the rise of corporations.
“I don’t think they’re causing a whole lot of trouble. There’s some good. To me, there’s some cautionary notes. But in general, I don’t think they’ve really disrupted veterinary practice.”
Terzic says she is still frustrated by her experience at the corporate-run clinic and won’t be going back. Guppy was treated for an ear infection elsewhere after a visual exam caught what the corporate-run clinic missed — and has made a full recovery.
Terzic, though still hasn’t gotten over the cost of her bill.
