How the corporatization of vet clinics is driving up prices across the country [Video]

Editor’s note: This story is part of a joint investigation with the Fifth Estate, Marketplace, and Radio-Canada’s Enquete and La Facture looking at the changing pet health sector in Canada.

When Maja Terzic brought her sick cat to the vet, she agreed to a few hundred dollars in blood work to hopefully find out what was wrong with him. Guppy was then whisked away to a back room.

“I was just kind of in the dark, I didn’t know what was happening,” Terzic said. 

An hour later, she was handed a $1,100 bill, full of tests and treatments she says she never agreed to.

“My stomach literally dropped. I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to do the credit card not the debit card today,” said Terzic, who had no idea the clinic was owned by the largest veterinary consolidator in Canada, VetStrategy.