Veterinary consolidation has followed many of the same strategies in the DSO and MSO playbooks. Corporate and private equity ownership climbed from about 8% of U.S. clinics in 2011 to approximately half by 2025, with independent practices holding most of the remainder. What stands out about 2026 is that the market increasingly looks like it has entered the same maturity phase dental reached a year prior, with consolidation turning inward. Two of the clearest examples in recent memory are Ethos Veterinary Health’s 2025 acquisition of NVA, as well as the merger that formed Mission Pet Health from Southern Veterinary Partners and Mission Veterinary Partners.

That maturity is showing up in deal volume as well. Consolidator acquisitions peaked at roughly 1,100 practices in 2021 and have since fallen sharply, landing at around 350 annually in 2024 and 2025. Rather than a loss of buyer interest, this decline is likely the result of higher financing costs and a smaller pool of attractive targets.

Valuation trends are more complicated than the topline number suggests. The weighted average general practice multiple rose from roughly 12.4x to 13.4x EBITDA between the second half of 2025 and the first half of 2026, but that increase is concentrated almost entirely in a narrow band of large, high-performing practices now trading closer to 14.5x, while the broader market has held essentially flat near 11.8x for more than two years.* And as the buyer pool for specialty platforms has thinned out, general practice has overtaken specialty and emergency care in valuation for the first time in over a decade.

But not every platform enters this next phase from a position of strength, with at least one major consolidator seeing its credit rating downgraded in 2025 amid concerns about an unsustainable capital structure. Cases like this are a reminder that the health of the platform now matters nearly as much as the multiple on offer, especially where rollover equity is involved. On the regulatory end, federal antitrust enforcers continue to require divestitures and prior-approval conditions on the largest platforms before they can pursue further specialty or emergency acquisitions in concentrated markets.

There’s also a demand question the industry needs to address, with visit volumes in decline for four consecutive years, and new research questioning whether pandemic-era pet adoption will produce the demographic rebound many buyers have been underwriting.

*Source: Ackerman Group Q2 2026 Veterinary Practice Market Pulse