Job listings within the veterinary world are opening up. Over the next decade, employment is projected to grow nine percent — about three times faster than the average for all other occupations — with about 3,100 openings expected each year. But demand is only part of the story.
Although the number and size of practices continue to expand, one fifth of veterinary graduates enter the field with more than $300,000 in debt. Against that backdrop, professionals have more employers to choose from, and should consider each institutions’ unique relationship to things like clinical autonomy, career development opportunities and pathways to practice ownership depending on the stage in their veterinary career.
Top Companies Hiring Veterinarians
Mars Veterinary Health
National Veterinary Associates (NVA)
Mission Pet Health
VetCor
Thrive Pet Healthcare
Top Companies Hiring Veterinarians
Veterinary Emergency Group focuses exclusively on 24/7 emergency veterinary and urgent pet care. Its unconventional practice model uses an open-floor layout that’s designed to eliminate traditional waiting rooms, allowing pet owners to stay alongside their pets during treatment. This immersive setting gives new hires real-time surgical and critical care experience.
Connecting 350 primary, acute, emergency and specialty hospitals, Thrive Pet Healthcare links different levels of care within the same region. This setup allows veterinarians to pick up shifts at different clinics, earn float-pool differentials and tap into shared cloud-based diagnostic tools without having to leave the larger Thrive network.
With more than 200 general practice hospitals nationwide, CareVet’s recruiting model is built around retaining veterinarians in practice for the long term. Its strategy to attract the best general practitioners and medical directors in the field starts with offering competitive production-based pay, student loan repayment stipends, dedicated mental health resources and pathways into co-ownership.
VetCor manages a collaborative network of community-based veterinary practices across North America. Founded in 1997, it’s built a model around preserving each practice’s autonomy while giving veterinarians access to the resources of a larger network.
National Veterinary Associates is made up of a thousand international community hospitals, general practice clinics, equine centers and high-acuity specialty facilities. Its decentralized model puts clinical decisions in the hands of local veterinarians, allowing them to call the shots on diagnostics, drug formularies and treatment protocols.
Mission Pet Health runs a nationwide network of 970 facilities across 43 states — all with individual practice ownership tracks. That means DVMs can pursue equity co-ownership or founding lead roles, with professional development support while their clinics keep their own names and identities.
PetVet Care Centers sees about 25 million pet patients per year. Managing more than 400 locations, PetVet is designed to absorb administrative, compliance and marketing operations centrally, so that attending DVMs have absolute autonomy over diagnostic workups, surgical protocols, appointment pacing and patient treatment plans.
United Veterinary Care has treated about one million patients to date. The company emphasizes early-career mentorship across its 108-clinic network, giving fresh DVM graduates structured mentorship pairings, hands-on surgical training and access to clinical advisory committees while allowing individual hospitals to retain their autonomy.
Mars Veterinary Health is the world’s largest veterinary employer. Across a global, 3,000 clinic-network, it handles millions of annual pet visits via high-volume Banfield primary care, neighborhood VCA general practices and 24/7 specialty and emergency BluePearl hospitals. If hired, DVMs gain access to unmatched career mobility.
Operating as the National Veterinary Associates dedicated specialty arm, Ethos Veterinary Health encompasses more than 140 hospitals and 1,500 specialty doctors across North America. Built specifically for high-acuity emergency and board-certified tertiary care, Ethos offers DVMs access to advanced imaging machines — like CTs and MRIs — linear accelerators, hemodialysis units, multi-center clinical trials and formal VIRMP-matched internship and residency programs.
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