Top 10 Challenges Veterinarians Face & Tips to Handle Them

Key Takeaways

• Veterinary practices across Australia and New Zealand are facing rising economic pressures, increased operating costs, and financially stretched clients.
• Workforce shortages, burnout, and limited time for training continue to place strain on veterinary teams and impact capacity.
• Client expectations are rising, and loyalty is harder to maintain because of cost sensitivity and misinformation.
• Declining patient visits and wage pressures are challenging practice profitability and long‑term sustainability.
• Technology, automation, and cloud‑based practice management software like Covetrus Ascend can help clinics streamline their workflows, improve client communication, reduce staff administrative burden, and strengthen their financial resilience.

The veterinary profession in Australia and New Zealand is navigating one of its most complex periods in recent years. Economic pressures, staffing shortages, rising client expectations, and rapid technological change are reshaping how clinics operate every day. These challenges affect almost every aspect of clinic operations – from team wellbeing through to practice profitability and the client experience.

In this article, we explore the top challenges facing veterinary professionals and provide some practical, technology‑enabled tips to help you respond to them with confidence. With the right tools, workflows, and support, your practice can stay resilient and continue delivering exceptional patient care.

Top 10 challenges veterinarians face and what you might not know about them

1. Economic conditions and cost‑of‑living pressures

Economic pressures are shaping the veterinary landscape more than any other factor in 2026. The latest Provet and Covetrus Top Veterinary Industry Trends to Watch in 2025 and Beyond eBook found that 73% of respondents identified economic conditions and cost of living as the biggest challenge. This real-life insight reflects the impacts of both rising clinic expenses and financially stretched clients.

These pressures are added to by increasing operational costs, including wages, utilities, stock, and premises. The economic climate – recently exacerbated by tensions in the Middle East – is creating increasing uncertainty for veterinary teams and the communities they support.

Tips for managing challenging economic conditions

With 73% of professionals identifying economic conditions as the top challenge for 2026, clinics should focus on operational efficiency. Rising expenses and financially stretched clients create a difficult balancing act. Using practice management software (PMS) like Covetrus Ascend, practice owners and managers can access real-time analytics to monitor high-margin services and supply costs. These data-driven insights will help clinics adjust their operations quickly and protect profitability, even when consumer spending drops.

2. Financial flexibility and payment constraints

Financial flexibility for clients is another significant challenge for veterinarians, with payment and financial constraints among the top concerns. Many practices experience sensitivity around treatment costs – even for essential or emergency care.

This challenge is made worse by high expectations and misunderstandings about the true cost of delivering high‑quality veterinary care. For example, some clinics experience friction at the front desk when clients feel unprepared for fees, or they perceive veterinary care as unaffordable. These financial pressures influence client behaviour, compliance, and overall engagement with veterinary services.

Tips for handling clients’ financial challenges

To counter financial sensitivity around treatment costs, clinics should aim to give transparent, itemised estimates to manage client expectations early. The best practice management software makes generating professional estimates simple and quick, so clients understand exactly what they’re paying for. When clients feel informed and prepared, they’re more likely to approve recommended care early, which can prevent conditions from worsening and becoming more expensive to treat.

Leading practice management solutions integrate with payment platforms that let clinics offer deposits, staged payments, or pre‑payment for procedures. This helps clients spread costs more manageably, which helps reduce financial barriers to patient care.

Having access to a leading wholesale and distribution network like Provet gives clinics access to competitive pricing on pharmaceuticals, preventatives, consumables, and nutrition. By reducing procurement costs and improving stock efficiency, practices can avoid unnecessary price increases for clients. Better stock turns and fewer expired products also help clinics keep margins healthy without passing costs on to pet owners.

3. Global veterinary shortage, recruitment and retention

The veterinary workforce shortage continues to be one of the most pressing issues for veterinarians, with 59% of respondents in the Top Veterinary Trends survey expecting recruitment and retention challenges to continue for the foreseeable future. Practices across Australia and New Zealand report difficulty attracting qualified vets and nurses, particularly in regional areas. One practice owner summarises the frustration: “It’s hard finding quality vets. Expensive job advertising rarely reaps any results.”

This shortage places additional strain on existing teams, who often carry heavier workloads and have limited time for mentoring or development. Senior clinicians feel stretched between supporting new graduates and managing their own caseloads. These workforce pressures can affect morale, service capacity, and long‑term sustainability for practices.

Tips for managing staffing challenges

Making your clinic a ‘destination’ workplace is important for attracting quality staff, and reducing the ‘administrative drag’ of a role is a key retention strategy. Modern, cloud-based tools like Covetrus Ascend have an intuitive interface that reduces onboarding time for new hires and helps them become fully integrated and productive more quickly. By automating paperwork, you let clinicians focus on medicine, while cloud access supports flexible work arrangements for clinical and admin staff.

4. Staff burnout, mental health and wellbeing

Burnout and mental health concerns remain widespread in the veterinary industry, with a 2023 survey on workload and wellbeing identifying that 70% of respondents had experienced at least one case of burnout at their workplace in the last 12 months (either themselves or a fellow staff member).

The emotional toll of veterinary work is intensified by staffing shortages and economic stressors, which can leave veterinary professionals feeling stretched thin. Limited downtime, emotionally charged cases, and rising client expectations all contribute to fatigue and shape the daily experience of veterinary teams across the APAC region.

Tips for managing staff health and wellbeing

One of the best defences against burnout is to reduce manual, repetitive tasks that add to ‘clinical debt’. Leading PMS like Covetrus Ascend use automated workflows to manage appointment reminders and lab results, which can reclaim hours of staff time. By lowering the daily administrative burden, technology can help lower stress levels and let your team prioritise their mental wellbeing.

5. Training, learning and development barriers

Training and development remain essential but difficult to achieve. The Provet and Covetrus survey found 71% of respondents struggle to schedule learning around work hours, while 56% face budget constraints. Being short‑staffed makes it even harder to release team members for training.

Many practices rely on distance education due to time and resource limitations. And, despite strong interest in leadership development, clinical upskilling, and customer service training, the realities of daily vet clinic operations often limit what teams and individuals can do. These barriers create a gap between the desire for professional growth and the capacity to support it.

Tips for removing barriers to learning and development

Many veterinary professionals find it hard to schedule training, so continuous development is important for building team confidence. Shift toward ‘micro-learning’ that fits into quieter periods in the work day. User-friendly software can help by providing intuitive navigation, which means less time spent on software training and more on clinical upskilling. Built-in help tools help staff to master the system at their own pace.

If time and budget allow, investing in formal training through a veterinary industry training specialist like Crampton Consulting Group will show your staff you care about their professional development. Modern training lets you choose how and when your training is presented, for example, in-person or online, and it focuses on staff mindset and behaviour changes, as well as business growth.

6. Practice profitability and rising operational costs

Rising operational costs – and particularly wage pressures – are also putting significant pressure on practice profitability. At the same time, patient visits have been declining, which has reduced revenue opportunities and left clinics less busy than before.

This combination of higher costs and lower productivity creates a challenging financial environment for veterinarians. With economic uncertainty affecting clients and clinics, maintaining financial stability is a big and ongoing challenge for practice owners and managers. These pressures influence staffing decisions, service offerings, and long‑term planning.

Tips to improve practice profitability

Rising wages and declining patient visits put pressure on practice profitability. In this environment, it’s essential to maintain stability through better inventory control and reduced lost revenue. Covetrus Ascend’s inventory management can improve the quality of patient care and lift your clinic’s profitability by reducing waste, stockouts, and unnecessary costs.

Ascend’s automated re-engagement tools also work in the background to fill gaps in your diary to support consistent revenue even in an uncertain economic climate.

7. Client loyalty, communication and expectations

Client loyalty and retention are also key challenges, with practices reporting that clients’ expectations are rising – often influenced by online information or misconceptions about veterinary care. Communication breakdowns can strain relationships further, especially when clients feel uncertain about costs or treatment plans.

Some clinics are seeing missed appointments for routine care, which affects patient outcomes and practice stability. These shifting expectations create a complex environment for maintaining strong client relationships and consistent service demand.

Tips for improving your customer experience

Rising client expectations and the use of ‘Dr Google’ can strain relationships and lead to missed appointments. To maintain loyalty, clinics must offer the modern multichannel communication and convenience that owners expect these days. A leading PMS integrates your online booking and automated reminders to keep your pet owners engaged. Communicating with clients via the channels they prefer – like SMS or email – builds trust and helps make sure that routine care remains a priority for patients and your practice.

8. Negative perceptions of veterinary costs and value

Negative public perceptions about the cost of veterinary care continue to challenge the veterinary profession in Australia and New Zealand. Worst-case, clinics can be accused of being ‘money hungry’, which can be fuelled by media narratives.

These perceptions can erode trust and make client interactions more emotionally charged, which in turn affects team morale and complicates discussions about care. It also influences how clients interpret pricing, value, and the role of veterinary professionals.

Tips for neutralising negative perceptions

To counter negative public perceptions about costs, practices must consistently demonstrate the high value of their services. Professional, digital documentation can act as a physical demonstration of expertise. With Covetrus Ascend, for example, you can easily create detailed discharge summaries and diagnostic reports. These professional summaries can shift the narrative from ‘price’ to ‘care’, which helps clients understand the technology and expertise required for modern veterinary medicine.

9. Adapting to technology and digital change

Adapting to new technology – and having the right tools – remains another key challenge, with 15% of survey respondents in the Provet/ Covetrus survey saying they and their teams are having difficulty adapting to new technology and 10% saying there are gaps in available technology. While many practices recognise the potential of digital tools, integrating them into daily workflows can be disruptive.

The rapid pace of technological change adds another layer of complexity. AI, telemedicine, and data‑driven systems are evolving quickly, and veterinary teams can often struggle to keep up. This creates a transitional period where expectations and capabilities don’t align yet.

Tips for adapting to technological change

Many veterinary teams struggle with the rapid pace of digital change and gaps in available technology. To bridge this, clinics need a centralised source of truth – preferably in a cloud-based platform that integrates seamlessly with labs and imaging. Because it updates automatically, your team always has access to the latest innovations without the disruption of manual installs. This can help ease the transition to a data-driven future.

10. Workload, work–life balance and emotional strain

Heavy workloads and work–life imbalance continue to affect veterinary professionals across all roles within a practice. Staffing shortages, rising client expectations, and economic pressures often mean long days and limited downtime.

This emotional strain is compounded by the nature of veterinary work itself, which often involves difficult conversations, complex cases, and emotionally charged situations. These pressures shape the lived experience of veterinary teams and influence long‑term career satisfaction.

Tips for better work–life balance

Heavy workloads often mean veterinary staff stay late to finish clinical notes, which impacts on their work-life balance. Combating this means you need a practice management solution that offers real-time charting and mobile access. This lets veterinarians complete their records on a tablet during the exam, which means there’s no admin carryover at the end of the day. This means staff can leave on time, which significantly reduces the emotional fatigue associated with an extended workday.

Remote access also means that practice owners and managers, as well as staff, can get into the PMS if they have to, without needing to come into the practice.

Find out more about Covetrus Ascend

Summary of tips to overcome the challenges of veterinarians

See how your clinic can solve your practice challenges with Covetrus Ascend

As the veterinary landscape across the Asia-Pacific region continues to evolve, the practices that thrive will be those that embrace smarter workflows, better communication, and technology that lightens the load for veterinary teams and their clients.

The challenges outlined in this article are significant, but they’re also manageable with the right support. If you want to streamline your operations, strengthen financial resilience, and create a better experience for your staff and clients, now is the perfect time to explore how a modern, cloud‑based practice management solution like Covetrus Ascend can help your clinic move forward with confidence.

To see what this looks like in action, see Covetrus Ascend’s latest recorded demo, or book an in-person demo today.