US households paid 38.2% more for veterinary care in 2026 than in 2021. The Bureau of Labor Statistics index for pet services including veterinary climbed from 274.281 to 379.005 across those five years — 6.7% a year, about 1.4 times the index's own 1997-2026 average. The useful question is not the average, though. It is what the same 38% does to the three bills a cat owner actually pays: the exam, the dental, and the emergency.
The index, year by year
The national series is published monthly, but the annual averages tell the story cleanly. Prices jumped hardest in 2022 and 2023, when clinics were absorbing staff shortages and drug-cost increases, then cooled for three straight years.
| Year | Index (1997 = 100) | Annual change |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 274.281 | +4.54% |
| 2022 | 298.187 | +8.72% |
| 2023 | 324.457 | +8.81% |
| 2024 | 343.878 | +5.99% |
| 2025 | 363.284 | +5.64% |
| 2026 | 379.005 | +4.33% |
The 2026 figure is still revisable. Two things get lost in the headline. First, a 4.33% year is still a real increase — on a $375 dental cleaning that is $16, not zero. Second, the gap compounds: since 1997 this index has averaged 4.70% a year against 2.54% for overall consumer prices.
What 38% looks like per service
Applying the index to today's typical prices gives a like-for-like 2021 figure. It is an estimate, not an invoice from 2021, but it shows where the money went.
| Service | 2026 typical (USD) | 2021 equivalent | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Routine visit (exam, routine tests, vaccines) | 138 | 100 | 38 |
| Dental cleaning under anesthesia | 375 | 271 | 104 |
| Emergency exam | 143 | 103 | 40 |
| Dental cleaning, top of range | 682 | 494 | 188 |
The pattern is consistent: the bigger the procedure, the more dollars the same percentage adds. Dental cleaning has the widest spread of the three — roughly $300 to $682 nationally, with state averages running from about $317 to $710 — because it bundles anesthesia, monitoring, scaling, polishing and often dental radiographs into one line.
Why dental outruns the exam
An exam fee buys clinician time and room overhead, both of which rise slowly. A dental buys anesthetic drugs dosed by body weight, a technician monitoring vitals for 30 to 60 minutes, and equipment that must be maintained whether or not it runs that day. Anesthesia is the line that scales, and it is also the line most likely to change between quote and invoice: a cat that needs two extractions turns a $375 cleaning into a $700-plus procedure.
The UK is not following the same curve
British prices have risen faster and are still accelerating. The Office for National Statistics index for veterinary and other pet services is up 74.9% between August 2015 and August 2025, against 48.7% for pet care overall, and the 2025 annual rate of 4.6% was higher than 2024's 3.3%. A routine consultation now sits at £40 to £80, an out-of-hours consultation runs two to four times the in-hours fee, and emergency initial consultations are commonly £200 to £300.
The Competition and Markets Authority found part of the reason: owners pay on average 16.6% more at practices owned by large corporate groups than at independents, and medicines are sold at three to four times purchase price. Its remedy is disclosure: every UK practice must publish prices for 16 routine services, dental scale and polish included. That lets owners compare like with like for the first time.
In China the quote is the price
There is no national index and no regulated tariff, so the only number that exists is the one on the estimate. A first consultation in Shanghai runs ¥50 to ¥150, about ¥200 at international chains, with a basic physical exam near ¥100, a blood panel ¥50 to ¥150 and a ¥100 to ¥200 surcharge for out-of-hours visits. Beyond that, variation dominates: in a January 2025 report by Legal Daily, the same urinary workup for one cat was quoted near ¥6,000 at one Beijing hospital and near ¥2,000 at another, and both cured the cat. Individual lines from the bills in that report: ¥650 for a 24-panel biochemistry screen, ¥200 per day of ICU, ¥880 to remove a throat foreign body, ¥5,000 for one MRI.
Dental follows the same logic. Anesthetized scaling is quoted anywhere from ¥500 to ¥1,500 depending on pre-anesthetic testing; one owner was quoted nearly ¥2,000 and found a ¥600 group-buy for the same cat. Neither price is fake. The difference is what is bundled.
Reading a three-year bill
Add up one routine visit, one dental and one emergency exam and you get a basket that cost about $475 in 2021 money and about $656 today — a $181 gap for the same three events.
| Line | 2021 equivalent | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Routine visit | 100 | 138 |
| Dental cleaning | 271 | 375 |
| Emergency exam | 103 | 143 |
| Total | 475 | 656 |
That basket is why fixed monthly budgeting beats reacting to invoices: the annual part is predictable, and the dental part is predictable too, just on a two-to-three-year cycle that people forget to save for.
Three ways to rebudget
- Split fixed from lumpy. A routine visit plus boosters is a known annual cost; dental is a known cost with an unknown date. Divide the dental estimate by 24 and move that amount monthly. At $375, that is about $16 a month.
- Price the elective twice. Dental cleaning is scheduled, not urgent, so it can be quoted. A second opinion costs $150 to $800, which only pays if the gap between quotes is larger than that — usually it is, at the high end of the range.
- Lower the deductible, not the coverage. If the premium has risen with the index, raising the deductible cuts the monthly cost while keeping catastrophic cover; the trade is that a $375 dental may fall under it.
Four questions that move a bill
- “Can you send the itemized estimate in writing before treatment?” Ask for line items, not a total.
- “How many minutes of anesthesia and monitoring are included, and what does each extra 15 minutes cost?”
- “Is the dental x-ray bundled or separate, and what changes clinically if we skip it?”
- “If the quote is higher than the practice across town, which line is the difference?”
All four can be asked by email before the appointment, which avoids arguing about money in front of a sick cat. Read the itemized bill against this line-by-line breakdown if a charge is unfamiliar.
What the index cannot tell you
An index measures averages, not your cat. It cannot tell you whether the £60 consultation near you is good value or whether a ¥2,000 quote is fair, and it says nothing about what treatment is appropriate. Prices vary by city, by ownership group, and by what is bundled into a single line; the ranges above are for budgeting, not for choosing a plan of care. This article is not a substitute for veterinary diagnosis — if your cat is unwell, the decision comes from an examination and the cost conversation comes after the clinical one.
For the annual picture, see the full yearly budget; for the emergency case, what an ER visit adds up to.
Frequently asked
Why does veterinary care rise faster than general inflation?
Three structural reasons: wages for licensed staff and technicians rise with the local labour market, equipment such as digital radiography and CT must be paid for whether or not it is used daily, and drug volumes are small enough that manufacturers charge more per unit. The US index has averaged 4.70% a year since 1997 against 2.54% for overall consumer prices.
Can I skip dental cleaning to save money?
Skipping it usually moves cost rather than removing it. Untreated periodontal disease leads to extractions, and extractions are priced per tooth on top of the cleaning — the difference between a $375 cleaning and a $700-plus procedure. Home brushing between visits extends the interval, but it does not replace scaling below the gumline.
Two clinics quoted very different prices for the same procedure. Which is right?
Neither is necessarily wrong; the difference is usually what is bundled. Compare line by line: minutes of anesthesia and monitoring, whether dental x-rays are included, pre-anesthetic bloodwork, pain relief to take home. In China the gap can be threefold for identical work, so ask for a written itemized estimate before consenting.