Veterinary Practice Exit Strategy in 2026: The Owner’s Options Framework

Key takeaways

• An exit strategy is a multi-year plan, not a single sale. It’s the path, the timeline, and the readiness work that together decide how much you walk away with and what your practice becomes after you leave.
• There are five real paths in 2026: associate buy-in, partial sale with retained equity (the partnership model), full sale to a private equity-backed buyer, a step-back arrangement, and a sale with continued employment. Most owners choose between two or three of them.
• The partial-sale model has become common. A private equity-backed buyer takes a 60 to 80 percent majority, you keep 20 to 40 percent, and your remaining stake gets bought out at a defined future date — a structured second payout the industry calls a “second bite of the apple.”
• Starting 2 to 5 years early is the cheapest lever you have. It’s the window where reducing owner dependence, building management depth, and documenting clean earnings actually move the number.
• Your exit path and your practice’s value are the same conversation. The strategy you pick and the process you run determine both the headline number and how much of it lands in your account as cash.

The most honest question I get tends to come on a Sunday evening, from an owner who has been turning it over for weeks before picking up the phone. He was 58, ran a strong 3-doctor practice, and had just had a birthday that made the math feel real.

He said, “I don’t even know what my options are. Do I just sell?

Do I sell to my associate? Do I keep working?

I have no idea where to start.”

That’s the most honest question I get, and almost nobody asks it out loud. Most owners skip straight to “what’s it worth” because that’s the number that’s easy to obsess over.

But “what’s it worth” is the wrong first question. The right first question is “what do I actually want my exit to look like,” because the answer changes which path you take, and the path changes the number.

This article is the framework I’d walk that vet through over dinner. Not a single answer.

A menu, with the tradeoffs of each option laid out honestly, and a way to figure out which one fits your life and your practice. By the end you’ll know the five real paths, what each one costs you and gives you, and why the owners who treat this as a multi-year plan consistently end up in a better spot than the ones who treat it as a phone call.

What “exit strategy” actually means

A veterinary practice exit strategy is the multi-year plan for how you’ll eventually step away from owning your practice. It’s three things bundled together: the path you take out, the timeline you run it on, and the readiness work that determines how good the outcome is.

Owners tend to collapse all three into the single word “selling.” But selling is only one of several paths, and even within selling there are very different structures. The plan is what connects where you are now to where you want to be, and it’s the part most owners never actually write down.

Here’s the part that surprises people. Your exit strategy and your practice’s value are the same conversation viewed from two angles.

The path you choose, the timeline you run, and the readiness work you do all move the number. So the framework below isn’t separate from valuation.

It is how you control valuation.

In 2026, a private equity-backed veterinary buyer purchasing a strong practice with $1 million or more in normalized EBITDA is generally paying in the low-to-mid teens as a multiple of earnings through a competitive process. EBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization — what your practice produces in pure operating profit, before financing, taxes, and accounting choices. The headline number gets most of the attention.

The path and structure decide how much of it you actually keep. That’s the gap this framework is built to close.

Why this is a framework, not an event

The single biggest mistake I see is treating the exit as a moment instead of a process. An owner decides at 62 that they’re done, calls one buyer, takes the offer that lands, and signs.

That owner almost always leaves real money on the table, and often ends up in a structure that doesn’t fit what they actually wanted.

The owners who do well start 2 to 5 years out. That window is where the real levers live.

The Exit Planning Institute’s State of Owner Readiness research, which surveys private business owners across industries, keeps finding the same pattern. Roughly two-thirds of owners don’t fully understand their exit options.

A large majority say their value matters to their plan but haven’t done the work to enhance it, and only a small fraction have had a formal valuation in the past 2 years. The gap between how ready owners feel and how ready they actually are is enormous.

In veterinary specifically, the structural pressure is real but the outlook is improving. Per Capstone Partners‘ April 2026 Pet Sector M&A Update, pet sector deal volume accelerated year over year into 2026, with private equity buyers logging 3 platform deals and 5 add-on transactions early in the year against just 5 add-on deals in the same window of 2025.

The same report expects financial sponsor activity to strengthen through 2026 and 2027, driven by the fundamental structure of fund lifecycles and limited partners pushing for the liquidity events that got deferred after the 2022 rate environment. Axios reported in early 2026 that private equity firms have found their COVID-era veterinary deals harder to exit than expected, which cuts both ways: it pressures some platforms, and it also means sponsors are highly motivated to deploy and to transact.

The point for you as an owner is simple. The market is moving, and the owners who started preparing 2 or 3 years ago are the ones positioned to capitalize on it.

Readiness is a head start you can’t buy at the last minute.

The five exit paths, side by side

Here’s the menu the way I’d lay it out on the table. Five paths, and most owners end up seriously considering two or three of them once they understand the tradeoffs.

Exit path	How much you sell	Cash now vs. later	Control / involvement you keep	Best for the owner who wants
Associate buy-in	Often staged, eventually 100%	Mostly later (paid over years)	High early, declining over the buy-in	To preserve legacy and hand the practice to someone they trust
Partial sale with retained equity	Majority now (60–80%), keep 20–40%	Meaningful cash now, second payout later	Partial owner; stay involved with a defined future exit	A big payout now, plus upside on a “second bite”
Full sale to a PE-backed buyer	100%	Mostly cash now	Low after the transition period	The largest clean payout and the cleanest break
Step-back arrangement	100% (or majority)	Mostly now, structured handoff	Reduced clinical or leadership role for a set period	A softer landing for staff, clients, and themselves
Sale with continued employment	100%	Mostly now	Keep practicing clinically, no ownership burden	To keep doing the medicine without running the practice

None of these is universally “best.” The right one depends entirely on what you’re optimizing for, which is why the first step in any real plan is deciding that before you ever look at a number. Let me walk through each path the way I’d talk it through with you.

Not sure which path fits your practice and your timeline? Get a Free Practice Value Estimate — we’ll pull your numbers, normalize the EBITDA, and map your options against what a real competitive process would clear. No upfront cost, no obligation.

Path 1: Associate buy-in

An associate buy-in is when an existing associate veterinarian purchases ownership of your practice, usually in stages over several years, instead of you selling to an outside buyer. It’s the most relationship-driven path on the menu, and for the right owner it’s deeply satisfying.

The appeal is legacy. You hand your life’s work to a vet you trained, the culture survives, your long-time clients keep seeing a familiar face, and your staff keeps their jobs under someone they already trust.

For owners whose identity is wrapped up in what they built, that continuity is worth a lot.

The tradeoffs are real, though, and I’d be doing you a disservice not to name them. The headline number on an internal buy-in is usually lower than what the same practice would clear in a competitive open-market sale.

The associate has to qualify for substantial financing, which on a meaningful practice is a large loan for a young vet to carry. And the process is slow.

The best associate transitions start years in advance. You give the associate a glide path into leadership so they’re ready, and ready to take on that debt, by the time you want to step back.

A staged structure, where the associate buys a slice now and the rest over time, lets both of you test the partnership before either of you is fully committed.

The mistake I see is owners who wait until the year they want out, then float the idea to an associate who isn’t financially or professionally ready for it. Now the owner is stuck: the internal path isn’t viable on the timeline, and they haven’t prepared for an external sale either.

Starting early is what keeps the associate buy-in genuinely on the table.

One thing worth doing even if you’re fairly sure you’ll go this route: get a real outside valuation first. An internal buy-in priced off a number you and your associate sketched out together can shortchange you by a lot.

Knowing what the practice would clear in the open market gives you a fair, defensible basis for the internal price, and it protects the relationship from a “did I get taken” feeling later.

Path 2: Partial sale with retained equity (the partnership model)

This is the path that has changed the most in the last few years, and it’s the one most owners have never heard explained clearly. In a partial sale, a private equity-backed buyer purchases a majority stake in your practice, typically 60 to 80 percent, and you keep the rest, typically 20 to 40 percent.

The structure usually includes a defined buyout of your remaining stake at a future date, often around year 5. You take meaningful cash now for the majority you sold.

You stay on as a partial owner. And when your remaining stake gets bought out, you collect a second payout.

Industry commentary calls that future payout a “second bite of the apple.”

The economics can be genuinely compelling. You de-risk by taking a large amount of cash off the table today, while keeping a stake that participates in future growth.

If the practice grows and the platform sells at a higher multiple in 5 to 7 years, your retained piece can produce a second payday that’s a real number, not a rounding error.

This model has become common. Industry reporting through 2025 and 2026 describes a clear shift toward joint-venture and retained-equity structures, with buyers wanting their partner owners to commit to roughly 4 to 5 years so incentives stay aligned through the next growth phase.

The buyer wants you motivated to keep the practice strong, because your retained stake means you both win if it grows.

A quick definition, because the terms get used loosely. Rollover equity means keeping a slice of ownership in the new entity instead of taking all cash at close. In some deals you roll into the larger platform; in others you keep equity in your individual practice.

The difference matters for your risk: equity in your own practice is something you still influence, while equity in the broader platform rides on decisions made well above your building.

Here’s the honest caution. When a buyer asks you to keep 20 or 30 percent of your proceeds as equity, they’re asking you to bet on the future of an entity you no longer fully control.

The second payout is upside, not a guarantee. I always want a client to be able to live comfortably on the cash they take at close, treating the retained-equity second bite as a bonus rather than something they’re counting on.

Run that way, the partnership model is one of the most attractive options on the menu for an owner who isn’t ready to fully walk away.

Path 3: Full sale to a private equity-backed buyer

A full sale is the cleanest break on the menu. You sell 100 percent of the practice, take mostly cash, serve out whatever transition the buyer needs, and you’re done.

For an owner who’s ready to move on with their life, the simplicity is the whole point.

This is also the path that typically produces the largest headline number, especially when it’s run as a competitive process rather than a direct deal with a single buyer. More on the process piece in a moment, because it’s the difference between a good outcome and a great one.

A few definitions worth having in plain English, because every full-sale offer breaks into pieces. Part of the price is usually cash at close, the real money that hits your account on closing day.

Part may be an earnout, which is price paid later, only if the practice hits agreed performance targets after closing. Part may be rollover equity.

The headline multiple is the total of all of it, and the structure decides how much you actually pocket as cash.

Across private equity-backed veterinary deals in this market, the cash-at-close portion commonly runs the majority of total deal value, with the rest split among earnout, rollover, and occasional seller notes. The exact split is negotiated deal by deal, and a strong competitive process improves not just the headline but the terms — more cash, fewer contingencies, cleaner protections.

One reframe on the word “corporate,” because it scares a lot of owners. Most major non-strategic buyers in this market are private equity-backed firms, and those firms generally preserve local practice branding rather than rebranding.

The rebrand fear most owners carry mostly traces to Mars-owned VCA, which has historically rebranded acquired practices more aggressively. Mars is the strategic exception in this market; it’s family-owned, not private equity-backed.

For most buyers, your sign stays up and your team stays in place, because that continuity is exactly what they’re buying.

Path 4: The step-back (phased) arrangement

A step-back arrangement is a phased exit where you sell the practice but stay on afterward in a reduced clinical or leadership role for a defined period, gradually handing off responsibility before you fully leave. Think of it as a glide path rather than a cliff.

This is often the emotionally right answer for owners who can’t quite picture going from 50 hours a week to zero overnight. You sell, you take your cash, but you keep coming in, maybe 3 days a week, then 2, then as a relief vet, over a window that’s often 2 to 5 years.

Staff and clients get a soft landing instead of a sudden disappearance.

The buyer usually likes this too, and not just out of sentiment. Owner dependence is one of the most common reasons a veterinary deal stalls or gets repriced mid-process.

A credible, committed transition where the selling owner stays involved keeps the earnings stable through the handoff, which protects the value the buyer paid for, and therefore protects your price.

The thing to negotiate carefully is the shape of your post-sale role. What are your hours, your compensation, your authority, and crucially, how and when does it wind down.

I’ve seen step-backs that were a joy and step-backs where the owner felt like a guest in the practice they built. The difference is almost always in how specifically the role was defined in the agreement, not left to “we’ll figure it out.”

Worth saying plainly: under the newer rules in some states, the length of any post-sale commitment and non-compete is exactly the kind of term that’s getting more attention from buyers’ legal teams. Holland & Knight’s late-2025 healthcare commentary tracked a wave of state-level activity touching veterinary transactions, including a New York measure requiring acquirers to notify the state before certain deals close.

Structure has gotten more complex, which is one more reason to have someone on your side who negotiates these terms for a living.

Path 5: Sale with continued employment

The fifth path is for the owner who loves the medicine but is tired of owning. You sell the practice, shed the entire weight of running it, payroll, HR, equipment leases, compliance, the 2 a.m. worry, and you keep practicing clinically as an employed veterinarian for as long as it suits you.

The distinction from a step-back is intent and open-endedness. A step-back is a wind-down with an end date.

A sale with continued employment is “I want to keep being a vet, I just don’t want to be the boss anymore,” with no particular exit date attached.

For a lot of owners this is the quiet dream they didn’t know was an option. The part of the job they love, treating animals and seeing clients, stays.

The part that burned them out, everything administrative, goes to someone whose actual job is to handle it.

The economics are similar to a full sale on the price side, since you’re selling 100 percent. The negotiation centers on your employment terms: compensation structure, schedule, clinical autonomy, and what happens if either side wants to part ways down the road.

Get those right and this can be the lowest-stress path on the entire menu.

How readiness intersects with timing

Picking a path is half the framework. The other half is readiness, and readiness is where the multi-year part earns its keep.

Three kinds of readiness have to line up with market timing for an exit to go well.

Financial readiness is whether your numbers tell a clean, attractive story. That means a few years of stable or growing revenue, a healthy margin, and a defensible normalized EBITDA — the earnings number after stripping out personal expenses you run through the practice (the owner’s vehicle, family on payroll above market, owner pay above what a hired medical director would cost) and one-time costs the next owner won’t inherit.

Buyers price you off the normalized number, and properly documented normalization commonly lifts the figure well above the raw P&L.

Operational readiness is whether the practice runs without you. This is the one owners underweight the most.

If 70 percent of the clinical production runs through you personally, or the place can’t function when you take two weeks off, you’re not selling a practice a buyer can step into. You’re selling a job that ends the day you leave, and buyers price that risk in hard.

Personal readiness is the one nobody puts on a spreadsheet and the one that derails the most deals. Are you actually ready to not be the owner.

I’ve watched owners get to a signed letter of intent and freeze, not because the number was wrong but because they hadn’t done the internal work of imagining their life on the other side. That’s worth confronting early, honestly, ideally before you’ve pulled buyers into a process.

Now layer market timing on top. The exit environment moves, as the 2024 trough and the 2025-to-2026 recovery show.

You can’t perfectly time the market, and you shouldn’t try. What you can do is be ready, so that when your personal timeline and a decent market overlap, you can move instead of scrambling to prepare while the window is open.

That’s the whole argument for starting 2 to 5 years out. Readiness isn’t something you generate in 90 days.

It’s something you build, and the owners who build it early get to choose their moment instead of taking whatever moment chooses them.

Why the process you run sets the real number

Whatever path you lean toward, one decision sits underneath all of them and moves the outcome more than any other: whether you run a structured competitive process or take a direct offer.

Here’s the mechanism. A buyer talking to you alone offers their lowest defensible number, because they have no reason to do otherwise.

The private credit research firm Octus described the dynamic in its 2025 sector work, noting that multiples for typical private practices were “lingering in the mid- to high single digits” in single-bidder contexts. That’s what a financial buyer pays when nobody else is in the room.

It is not what your practice is worth in a market with several qualified buyers competing for it.

Run the same practice through a structured competitive process, what we call the Elite Selling System, and the number moves. The name describes how it works: we hand-select and vet every buyer who gets to bid on your practice, the way a doorman with a velvet rope lets in only the right people, then we run a private competitive bidding window inside that vetted group.

That filter is what creates the leverage.

The arithmetic is worth sitting with. On a practice doing $1 million in normalized EBITDA, the difference between a single-bidder offer in the high single digits and a competitive close in the low teens can be several additional multiples of EBITDA.

A multiplier point, or a “turn,” is one full multiple of your EBITDA — moving from a 7x to a 9x is 2 turns, which on $1 million of EBITDA is $2 million of additional sale value. Same practice, same week, different process to find out who’d actually pay the most.

This matters for every path, not just the full sale. Even if you’re leaning toward an associate buy-in, knowing what the practice would clear competitively gives you the fair benchmark to price the internal deal.

Even in a partial sale, a competitive process improves both the cash you take now and the terms on the equity you keep. The process isn’t a separate option.

It’s the thing that sets the true value the rest of your decisions reference.

One related note on financial preparation, because owners sometimes ask whether they should commission their own deep audit before selling. The answer is no, not on your own.

When we prepare a practice, part of the work is a thorough pre-sale financial review on our side of the table, built around exactly the kind of scrutiny the buyers’ accountants will run, but before any buyer sees your numbers. That gives us months to clean up anything that wouldn’t survive a deep look, so it never becomes a price-cutting surprise late in the deal.

Setting realistic expectations for your situation

Let me bring this down to where you probably sit. If you’re a solo owner producing most of the clinical work, your most valuable move over the next 2 years is reducing that dependence, and your highest-value path is usually a competitive sale or a step-back that keeps you involved while the transition de-risks the practice for the buyer.

If you run a multi-doctor practice with real management depth and a few years of clean growth, you have the most options. A full competitive sale, a partial sale with a meaningful second bite, or a well-structured associate transition are all genuinely on the table, and the right one comes down to what you’re optimizing for and how much you want to stay involved.

If you’ve got a strong associate who wants to own and your priority is legacy over maximum dollars, the internal buy-in deserves a serious look, with an outside valuation to anchor a fair price. And if you simply love the medicine but are done being the boss, the sale-with-continued-employment path may be the quiet answer you didn’t know existed.

The expectation I’d steer you away from is the idea that there’s one right answer that applies to everyone. There isn’t.

There’s the right answer for your practice, your timeline, your family, and what you actually want the next chapter to look like. The framework’s whole job is to help you find that.

“I knew that I would get the best value for my practice if I had a professional helping me. And it definitely turned out to be true that having Tom in my corner. I have zero doubt that I would not have gotten the value for my practice if I didn’t have him on my side as well as the ease of it. It was such an easy transition and he made the entire process very simple.”

— Sharon Gorman, Las Vegas, Nevada

What to do next

Most of what I’ve laid out here is the conversation I’d have with you over dinner in the first hour of getting to know your practice and what you want. The menu is the easy part.

Figuring out which path fits, and getting ready so you can choose your moment, is the work.

If you’re inside the 2-to-5-year window before you want to step away, and most owners who read this far are, there are two moves that matter most right now.

The first is getting an honest, defensible normalized EBITDA documented before any buyer enters the conversation. Not sketched by your regular CPA in isolation unless they’ve personally been through major veterinary practice transactions.

The owners who walk in with that number properly built clear meaningfully more than the ones anchored to a raw P&L, on every path.

The second is understanding what your practice would actually clear in a competitive process, because that number is the benchmark every other option references. Even if you end up choosing an internal buy-in or a partial sale, you want to make that choice knowing what you’re trading off, not guessing.

Get a Free Practice Value Estimate →

We pull your numbers ourselves, build the normalized EBITDA properly, run the pre-sale financial review that surfaces and fixes anything a buyer’s accountants would catch, map your exit options against your goals, and send you back a defensible value range with the math behind it. The estimate is free and there’s no obligation to engage further.

The Transitions Elite engagement model is success-based, with no upfront fees and no retainer. We only get paid when a deal closes, and only out of the value our process delivers above what you would have realized on your own.

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Further reading

These are the related resources I’d point any owner toward as they build their plan. Each one goes deep on a single dimension of the decision.

• How much private equity is paying for veterinary practices — the private equity business model, the four components of any PE-backed offer, and why the headline number rarely equals the cash check.
• Veterinary practice EBITDA multiples — the real multiple ranges by practice size and what moves the number up or down.
• How to sell a veterinary practice — the step-by-step process from advisor engagement to closing, including tax considerations and post-sale realities.
• Retirement planning for veterinary practice owners — the life-stage and financial-planning side of stepping away, for owners thinking about the years after the sale.
• Veterinary practice consolidators directory — the verified directory of every major PE-backed and strategic buyer operating in 2026.
• Tax consequences of selling a veterinary practice — how deal structure and proceeds are taxed, and why structure choices change your after-tax check.

Frequently asked questions

What is a veterinary practice exit strategy?

A veterinary practice exit strategy is the multi-year plan for how you’ll eventually step away from ownership. It’s not a single sale event.

It covers the path you take (associate buy-in, partial sale with retained equity, full sale to a private equity-backed buyer, a step-back arrangement, or a sale with continued employment), the timeline you run it on, and the readiness work — financial, operational, and personal — that determines how much you actually walk away with. The owners who treat it as a framework they start 2 to 5 years out consistently realize better outcomes than the ones who treat it as a phone call they make the year they want to retire.

What are the main exit options for a veterinary practice owner?

There are five main paths in 2026. Associate buy-in, where a current associate purchases the practice over time.

Partial sale with retained equity, the partnership or joint venture model where a private equity-backed buyer takes a 60 to 80 percent majority and you keep a 20 to 40 percent stake with a defined second exit, usually around year 5. Full sale to a private equity-backed buyer, where you sell 100 percent and take mostly cash.

A step-back arrangement, where you sell but stay on in a reduced role for a defined period. And a sale with continued employment, where you keep practicing clinically without the ownership burden.

Most owners end up choosing between two or three of these once they understand the tradeoffs.

How early should I start planning my veterinary practice exit?

Start 2 to 5 years before you want to step away. That window gives you time to do the things that materially move your outcome: reduce how much of the clinical work runs through you personally, build management depth, document a defensible normalized EBITDA, and run a real competitive process instead of accepting the first offer.

The Exit Planning Institute’s owner-readiness research consistently finds that most owners overestimate how ready they are and underestimate how long preparation takes. Starting early is the single cheapest lever you have, and it’s the one most owners skip.

What is the partial sale or partnership model in veterinary deals?

In a partial sale, a private equity-backed buyer purchases a majority stake in your practice (typically 60 to 80 percent) and you keep the rest (typically 20 to 40 percent), usually with a defined buyout of your remaining stake at a future date, often around year 5. Industry commentary calls the future payout a “second bite of the apple.” You take meaningful cash now, stay involved as a partial owner, and if the practice or the platform grows, you participate in that growth and collect a second payout when your stake is bought out.

It has become one of the more common structures in 2025 and 2026 for owners who aren’t ready to walk away completely.

Is an associate buy-in better than selling to a private equity-backed group?

Neither is universally better. An associate buy-in tends to preserve the practice’s culture and your legacy, and it gives a vet you trust a path to ownership.

The tradeoffs are that it usually clears a lower headline number than a competitive sale, the associate has to qualify for substantial financing, and the process is slower. A competitive sale to a private equity-backed buyer typically produces a higher price and a cleaner exit, with the tradeoff that you have less control over what happens to the practice afterward.

The right answer depends on what you’re optimizing for — maximum dollars, legacy, speed, or staying involved.

Can I sell my veterinary practice and keep working?

Yes, and most sellers do for at least a couple of years. Under a step-back arrangement you stay on after the sale in a reduced clinical or leadership role for a defined period, often 2 to 5 years, then hand off.

Under a sale with continued employment you keep practicing clinically without the ownership burden for as long as it suits you. Buyers generally prefer that the selling owner stays involved through a transition, both to keep clients and staff steady and to keep the practice’s earnings stable through the handoff.

Owner dependence is one of the most common reasons a deal stalls, so a credible transition plan protects your price.

How does my exit strategy affect what my practice is worth?

The strategy you choose and how early you start both move the number. Reducing owner clinical dependence, building management depth, and showing a few years of clean growth can lift the multiple by a point or two over a 2-year preparation window.

The path itself also matters: an associate buy-in priced off an internal valuation usually clears lower than the same practice run through a competitive process with multiple qualified bidders. And the structure determines how much of the headline you actually collect in cash versus contingent or rolled-over consideration.

Exit strategy and valuation are the same conversation viewed from two angles.

What happens to my staff and clients when I exit?

That depends heavily on the path and the buyer. Most private equity-backed groups preserve local practice branding and keep the existing team, because the staff and client relationships are exactly what they paid for.

Mars-owned VCA has historically rebranded acquired practices more aggressively than the private equity-backed firms do, which is useful context if continuity matters to you. A step-back arrangement gives staff and clients a softer landing because you’re still in the building during the handoff.

The points to negotiate are retention terms for key team members, the timeline and scope of any rebrand, and your own transition role.

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Sources

Industry M&A research and valuation data

1. Capstone Partners. “Pet Sector M&A Update — April 2026.” capstonepartners.com
2. Octus. “Private-Credit Exposure to Veterinary Rollups Shows Growing Dispersion — VSOs Under Increasing Pressure.” 2025. octus.com
3. Axios Pro. “Private equity firms find COVID-fueled veterinarian deals hard to exit.” 2026. axios.com
4. QuantPillar. “2025-2026 Private Market Valuation Multiples.” quantpillar.com
5. Mordor Intelligence. “Veterinary Medicine Market.” mordorintelligence.com

Exit planning, succession, and owner-readiness research

6. Exit Planning Institute. “State of Owner Readiness.” exit-planning-institute.org
7. AAHA. “Practice Ownership Exit (and Entry) Strategies.” 2024. aaha.org
8. Today’s Veterinary Business. “You, Your Legacy and Your Practice’s Future.” 2025. todaysveterinarybusiness.com
9. AVMA Axon. “Consolidation Counterpoint: Exit Strategies.” axon.avma.org

Legal and regulatory analysis

10. Holland & Knight. “Charting a Path Forward in 2026: Holland & Knight’s Year-End Healthcare Antitrust Report.” 2025. hklaw.com
11. Dechert LLP. “Healthcare Investments Flash Alert — Latest Developments.” 2025. dechert.com