Most vet clinics make a significant portion of their revenue from selling you products at markup. Prescription food, joint supplements, monthly parasite preventives, dental chews. It is such a common model that many owners assume it is just how vets work.
We built Paw Priority differently, and I want to explain why, because it changes what you pay.
Where the model came from
Twenty years ago, veterinary schools started teaching business courses alongside medicine. Corporate consolidation pushed clinics to hit revenue targets. The easiest lever was retail. Sell every client four things at every visit: a bag of prescription food, a case of flea prevention, a joint supplement, a dental chew. Multiply by thousands of visits.
The problem is not that these products are bad. Some are genuinely useful. The problem is that once you build a business around selling them, every recommendation becomes suspect.
What we do instead
We do not stock retail products at Paw Priority. If your dog needs joint support, we tell you which supplement has real evidence and where to buy it cheapest (usually Chewy or Amazon). If your cat needs prescription food, we write the prescription and you fill it wherever you want.
We make our money from care: exams, urgent care visits, surgery, dental cleanings, and our membership program. Not from moving product.
What this changes about your bill
Two things.
First, we do not add a “recommended for your visit” upsell at checkout. If your pet actually needs something, we recommend it. If they do not, we do not invent a reason.
Second, we tell you when the cheap option is fine. Most flea preventives available at Costco or a regular pharmacy work just as well as the branded version we could sell you for triple the price. We say that out loud.
What owners often ask
“Isn’t losing that retail income hard for you?”
Yes and no. The math works because we run a leaner clinic. Fewer square feet dedicated to shelves. Fewer staff hours on inventory. Fewer conversations that feel like a sales pitch. In exchange we get to give advice you can actually trust.
The tradeoff
You will not walk out of our clinic with a bag of anything. You will walk out with a plan, a written prescription if needed, and a link to buy it cheaper than we could sell it to you. Some clients miss the convenience. Most tell us it feels different in a way they cannot quite name.
The difference is that nothing at your visit is being sold to you. It is just being recommended.
See our full price list or check out our medications page for how we handle pharmacy.