If you’re a young vet, you’ve probably heard some version of this: ownership is dead, the corporations bought everything, and the smart move is to take a good salary and stay out of the business side.
I don’t buy it. I’ve been an associate, a partner, a seller and a buyer, and I own two hospitals today. Here’s what the numbers say, including the parts that don’t flatter owners.
Owners still earn more
AVMA’s 2025 economic report, which covers 2023 income, has owners of companion-animal-only practices averaging $191,352. Associates in the same type of practice averaged $146,196. That’s a gap of about $45,000 a year. The medians are closer, $160,000 vs. $133,000, but that’s still $27,000.
And it isn’t just small-animal. Owners out-earned associates in every private practice category AVMA reported: companion animal, mixed animal, equine and food animal.
Now the honest caveat. In AVMA’s census, owners averaged about 24 years of experience and associates about 13.5. Some of that income gap is seniority, not ownership. But the pattern shows up in every category, and it isn’t small.
The paycheck is only half the story
An associate’s income stops when they stop working. An owner’s doesn’t have to. When you own a practice, you’re building something you can sell, bring a partner into, or keep earning from when you step back.
That’s hard to see at 30 and obvious at 60. A lot of the owners selling today are cashing in decades of equity. That option only exists if you owned something.
The real costs
Ownership isn’t free, and anyone who tells you it is wants something from you.
- More hours. AVMA’s census has owners at 47.2 hours a week, vs. 40.9 for associates.
- Debt and risk. You’ll probably borrow to buy, and that loan is yours in good years and bad ones.
- A second job. Payroll, hiring, conflict, marketing, cash flow. If you hate all of that, you’ll need a strong practice manager and the humility to let them run with it.
Fewer owners means more opportunity
The share of vets who own their practice keeps shrinking. AVMA’s 2024 census put owners at 23.8% of private-practice veterinarians. A 2025 paper in Frontiers in Veterinary Science estimates that corporations own about 25% of primary care practices and about 75% of specialty and emergency practices.
That sounds like bad news if you want to own someday. I think it’s the opposite.
The same paper cites a Veterinary Management Groups survey of owners who sold to corporations. 71% said they would have preferred to sell to an associate. And when asked why they didn’t, 59% said the associate couldn’t afford it.
Read that again. Owners want to sell to you. What’s in the way is preparation and money, and you can solve both with time, a plan and the right lender.
The paper also notes that about 55% of associates said they’d rather work in independent practice. Plenty of vets want independence. Far fewer have a plan to get it.
So should you own?
Not necessarily. If you want predictable hours and no business headaches, being a great associate is a great career.
But if you want to set the standard of medicine, build a team you’re proud of and own the value you create, ownership is still the best path this profession offers. It just takes more preparation than it used to.
That’s what this section of the site is for. Pick your path: the student and new-grad roadmap, or the associate’s guide to buying your first practice.
Sources
- AVMA. 2025 AVMA Report on the Economic State of the Veterinary Profession. Jan 2025.
- Traub-Werner M, Salois M, McKay C, Platt M. “Making the case for a resurgent U.S. independent veterinary practice segment: a SWOT analysis”. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, May 2025.
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