What it costs each year to own a dog or cat
Basic pet ownership costs per year
Before sick visits to the vet, and with medication solely for parasite prevention, it looks like this:
| Each year | Dog | Cat |
|---|---|---|
| At the vet | ||
| DentalOne cleaning under anaesthetic | $1,320 | $1,320 |
| Visits and testsExams, vaccines, bloodwork | $579 | $454 |
| Parasite prevention medication | $238 | $131 |
| Vet subtotal | $2,137 | $1,905 |
| InsuranceAccident and illness | $1,402 | $704 |
| Food | $1,418 | $773 |
| Litter | — | $258 |
| Collar, toys, licence | $161 | $87 |
| Total | $5,118 | $3,726 |
What the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association budgets for a healthy adult pet in 2025, grouped into what you pay the vet and what you do not.[1]
Set the dental aside and visits plus medication are about 16% of the year either way — $817 for a dog, $585 for a cat. That is the part that grows.
What ongoing conditions add
Common ongoing care needs arise as pets age, often treated with medication. Allergies, arthritis and anxiety shown here aren’t all of them, but are among the more common ones, to illustrate how costs may rise.
| Condition | Dogonline pharmacy → clinic | Catonline pharmacy only |
|---|---|---|
| Itchy skin and allergies | $960 → $1,550 | > $420 |
| Arthritis and mobility | $610 → $970 | not priced |
| Daily anxiety | > $180 | > $90 |
A year's supply of medication for one condition, scaling a pack price to a year at label maintenance dosing. Each row prices one daily product — a tablet for allergies, an oral suspension for arthritis, a generic capsule for anxiety — so it is a simplification: doses follow bodyweight, some needs are seasonal rather than year-round, some pets need several medications and others need none of these. No two pets are the same. Cat figures are floors.[7][8]
- Your pet's teeth are its most expensive routine health need. One dental costs $1,320 — more than the exams, vaccines, bloodwork, tests and parasite prevention put together, for either animal.[1]
- Cats cost less per year but more per lifetime. Roughly $74,000 against $54,000 for a dog, because cats live longer.[6]
- Reasonable pricing is now the top reason Ontarians pick a vet, ahead of interest in the pet's wellbeing — a first since the survey began in 2003.[5]
Why it keeps going up
Almost everything about owning a pet has outrun inflation since 2021. Pet food is up 25% against 19% for prices generally. But vet fees have risen faster still, up 34%, and pet insurance more than either, up 48%.
Five years of increases, compounded. The dashed line is general inflation over the same period, so every bar above it rose faster than prices at large.[2][3]
Fees beat inflation in four of the last five years.[2] This is not clinics getting greedy — their own costs moved first. Wages are more than half of what it costs to run a clinic, and they climbed 38% for support staff and 54% for veterinarians, while drugs and supplies rose 26%.[2]
Where pet parents are at
of Canadian pet parents skipped or declined care their pet needed in the past year.[4]
of them said it came down to cost — they could not afford it, or it did not feel worth the price.[4]
of pet parents earning over $90,000 still could not afford the care they turned down.[4]
were offered a payment plan by their vet.[4]
Vet visits and medication are a fast-rising cost of owning a pet. These costs can appear suddenly with the onset of ongoing care needs. Half of Canadian pet parents have already skipped or declined care their pet needed, mostly over cost.
About Telepets
Telepets offers same-day online consultations for dogs and cats. Below is what our consultation includes.
- Veterinary consultation
- $49 + tax
- Veterinarian’s review
- included
- Written plan
- included
- Prescription to your pharmacy
- included
- Medication
- pharmacy’s price
- Telepets markup
- $0
- Paid to
- the pharmacy you pick
Licensed veterinarians are ready to help
Connect with a vetAll figures are an Ontario provincial average for a healthy adult pet, before sales tax.
Sources
- [1] Ontario Veterinary Medical Association, Annual Cost of Owning a Dog / Cat, 2025 — sections "Annual Cost of Owning a Dog" and "Annual Cost of Owning a Cat", page 2 of each sheet, at ovma.org/petcare. We regrouped OVMA's line items without changing a figure: "visits and tests" is their exams-with-vaccines, bloodwork, fecal and heartworm or Lyme lines added together, and "parasite prevention medication" is their parasite prevention line — the only medication the sheet carries. The cat column sums to $3,727 against OVMA's printed $3,726, a dollar of rounding in the original.
- [2] Noonan A, Osborne D. "Veterinarians, wages and inflation: The case for higher fees." Canadian Veterinary Journal 2026;67(3):363–365 — Table 1 for the yearly fee and CPI increases, Table 2 for wages, drugs and supplies. The five-year figures for vet fees, pet food and all prices are those annual increases compounded.
- [3] NAPHIA, State of the Industry Report 2026 — Section 4 "Average Annual Premiums", page 23 (Canada, CAD), at naphia.org/industry-data. The average accident-and-illness premium for a dog went from $797 in 2021 to $1,176 in 2025.
- [4] PetSmart Charities of Canada–Gallup, State of Pet Care Study (pet-owner survey), 11 June 2025 — section "Financial Factors Are the Greatest Obstacles to Care". 2,033 Canadian dog and cat owners, surveyed 28 November to 31 December 2024, margin of error ±2.3 points.
- [5] OVMA 2024 Ontario Pet Owners Report, reported in Noonan A. "Cost of owning a pet." Canadian Veterinary Journal 2024;65(11):1197–1199, Figure 1. Reasonable pricing 60%, interest in the pet's wellbeing 58%.
- [6] Rover, True Cost of Pet Parenthood Report, sixth annual Canadian edition, 18 March 2025 — upper end of the range.
- [7] Telepets survey of 35 Southern Ontario clinics, September 2026 — full results. Dog figures scale a pack price to a year at label maintenance dosing for a 20 kg dog: about 4.3 packs a year for the allergy medication, about 4.9 bottles for the arthritis medication. The low end is the cheapest online pharmacy all-in price, the high end the median of the 35 clinic quotes. Every quote in that survey was for a dog.
- [8] Telepets medication price list, telepets.ca/cost — online pharmacy prices, last checked 8 September 2026. Each figure takes the cheapest online price for a pack, adds that pharmacy's dispensing fee and scales it to a year at label maintenance dosing. Cat allergies: a 17 mL bottle of the feline formulation at every-other-day maintenance for a 4.5 kg cat, about 3.4 fills a year. Daily anxiety, both species: the generic capsule rather than the branded chew — 20 mg once daily for a 20 kg dog, about 4.3 fills a year; 10 mg every other day for a 4.5 kg cat, about 2.2 fills. The branded chew is roughly four times the generic for a dog. These are floors rather than ranges because the list carries no clinic prices, and each is rounded down. No cat arthritis medication appears on the list, hence "not priced".