A new CATalyst Council white paper, “Puppocalypse, Kitten Craze, and the Expectations Reset,” uses the age demographics of dogs and cats that visit full-service practices to forecast combined U.S. clinical visit growth of -2 percent to 0 percent through 2030. Those numbers are well below the 2 percent to 3 percent the industry expects.
The report’s central, empirically grounded finding is that the size of each year’s puppy and kitten visit cohort largely determines that cohort’s veterinary visits for the rest of those animals’ lives. It forecasts clinical visits but does not address revenue per visit.
Puppocalypse: New puppy clinical visits have declined for four straight years since the Covid boom and now sit roughly 38 percent below their 2018/19 baseline
Kitten Craze: Kitten visits have held at 8 to 10 percent above baseline over the same period, and generate progressively more visits per cat as the cohort ages.
Source: CATalyst Council, June 11, 2026. Link. Extending the replacement-rate logic resets our industry’s expectations, as visits from each new puppy cohort now run below the rate at which older dogs leave the active visit pool. Rising feline numbers only partly offset the shortfall, because cats contribute less than a third of the visits that dogs do.
Cats are the one segment of this market that is growing, and the practices and groups that get serious about feline care now are the ones positioned for the next decade. CATalyst Council estimates that only about a third of household cats are seen each year, so feline-specific marketing and a lower-stress, feline-friendly experience are the largest organic growth opportunity most practices have.” – Gina Fortunato
Download the free Puppocalypse, Kitten Craze and The Expectations Reset report <HERE>.
Commentary
These data are fascinating and valuable. For individual practices, patient retention activities should be guided not only by a pet’s age and species, but also by a pet’s lifetime value to the practice.
Thinking further about the age demographics of the dogs and replacement rates one must also consider the effect of adult dog adoptions on puppy visit metrics and the active pet visit pool. According to national data compiled by Shelter Animals Count (SAC), the exact ratio of puppies to adult dogs adopted in 2025 is not explicitly fixed into a single static fraction. However, puppies and juvenile dogs accounted for approximately 30 percent of total dog adoptions, while adult and senior dogs made up the remaining 70 percent.
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