How to hire a veterinarian in 2026
There are six ways to fill a DVM seat. Which one works for you depends on a single question most hiring advice skips: is there a licensed veterinarian in your market who is actually available to take the job?
Every cost and timeline below is sourced. Four of the six options have nothing to do with us.
The short answer
To hire a veterinarian in 2026 you can post the role yourself, pay a recruiter, rent relief coverage, hire a new graduate, raise your offer, or bring in a licensed doctor from outside the US workforce through international placement. The first five all draw on the same pool, and that pool is almost fully employed: the AVMA's 2024 Census of Veterinarians put veterinarian unemployment at 0.7 percent.
That one number explains most hiring frustration. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 3,100 openings for veterinarians a year through 2035, and nearly every domestic candidate who fills one is leaving a seat at another practice. A recruiter does not create a veterinarian; a recruiter moves one. If your seat has been open for months, the question is not which recruiter to call. It is whether there is anyone left to recruit.
Meanwhile the seat itself is the expensive part. The AVMA's 2025 Veterinary Practice Owners Survey puts 2024 gross revenue at $554,982 per veterinarian, roughly $46,000 a month of production an open seat does not capture.
The six ways to hire a veterinarian
In the order most owners try them. Each one is the right answer in some situation, and you deserve to know which before you spend money on any of them.
Post it yourself: job boards and your network
The cheapest option by far, and the right first move. The AVMA Veterinary Career Center, your state VMA board and your own referral network reach the doctors who are quietly open to a change.
Every practice in your state is posting to the same doctors. With 0.7 percent unemployment, a posting reaches people who already have a job and six other postings to compare yours against.
Veterinarian recruiters
Reaching the doctor who is open to leaving but will never answer a job ad. Contingency means you pay only when someone signs.
The recruiter is working for every clinic in your region at once, and the candidate goes to the best offer. Guarantees vary from 90 days to nothing, so get the length and remedy in writing.
Relief and locum coverage
Keeping the schedule open right now. If you are drowning this month, this is the correct answer and nothing else on this list is.
It is cover, not continuity. Per hour it is usually the most expensive way to have a doctor in the building, and the relief doctor leaves with the client relationships they built.
Hiring a new graduate
A long runway and a doctor you shape in your own practice's way of working.
Mentorship capacity you may not have while short-staffed, a slower ramp to full production, and the same bidding war as every other practice each spring.
Raising the offer
Sometimes it genuinely is the answer, and it is worth testing before spending anywhere else. Signing bonuses can move a doctor who was on the fence.
Your existing associates will find out, and should. If the local pool has no available doctor at any price, a higher number does not create one.
International placement
A licensed doctor from an accredited school who chose your practice rather than fielding six other offers in your county. The one option that adds a veterinarian to your market instead of moving one.
The wrong answer if your problem is next week. Licensing and the visa step are real and cannot be rushed. It only makes sense as the thing that ends the cycle.
Recruiters do not create veterinarians. They move them.
Five of the six options compete for the same almost fully employed pool. Only one adds a doctor to it.
Which one fits your seat?
Most practices end up using more than one. The order depends on how long the seat has been open and what you have already tried.
| If this is true | Start here |
|---|---|
| The seat opened in the last 30 days | Post it yourself first: AVMA Career Center, your state VMA board, your network. It is the cheapest test of whether anyone local is available. |
| You need coverage next week | Relief. Nothing else on this page is a substitute for a doctor in the building on Monday. Treat it as the bridge, not the plan. |
| A local candidate is genuinely ready to move | A recruiter can earn their fee here. Negotiate the guarantee as hard as the percentage. |
| You can out-pay the practice across town | Raise the offer, and test it before spending anywhere else. Just price in that your current associates will hear about it. |
| The seat has been open 90+ days with no real applicants | You have run out of local pool. International placement is the option that adds a doctor to your market rather than waiting for one to leave another practice. |
What hiring a veterinarian actually costs
Three numbers, all sourced. The second one is the one most owners have never calculated, and it is almost always the largest.
A recruiter
Around 20 percent of first-year compensation, in a reported range of 20 to 30 percent. At the May 2025 BLS median of $130,100 that is roughly $26,000 to $39,000 per hire, paid once. The variable that matters more than the percentage is the guarantee: some firms replace, some refund, some offer nothing past 90 days.
The empty seat
The AVMA's 2025 practice owners survey puts 2024 revenue per veterinarian at $554,982, about $46,000 a month or $288 an hour. Those are averages across every practice type, so replace them with your own production report. Peer-reviewed research (Neill, Hansen and Salois, 2022) puts the median cost of a single veterinarian turnover at about $104,000.
Relief as a strategy
A day rate plus the agency margin, every shift, for as long as the seat stays open. Per hour it is usually the most expensive coverage on this page, and it buys continuity for nobody: the relief doctor leaves and the client relationships leave with them.
The one option that adds a doctor to your market
Veterinarian is a covered profession under the USMCA trade agreement. That means a licensed veterinarian from Mexico or Canada can work in the United States on a TN visa, which has no lottery and no annual cap, and graduates of AVMA-accredited programs sit the same NAVLE exam US graduates take.
The difference from every other option here is structural. Recruiters, job boards and relief reshuffle the doctors the US already has. International placement brings in one who was not in the market, and who relocated specifically for your practice. That doctor is not fielding recruiter calls from the clinic across town, which changes how long they stay.
It takes longer than relief, typically 2-3 months from a signed offer to a first day, and it is the wrong answer if your problem is next week. VetBridge USA is a veterinary staffing company built around exactly this route for independent, owner-operated clinics: you interview the doctors, you choose, and we manage licensing coordination and the TN process end to end.
Questions owners ask before they hire
- How long does it take to hire a veterinarian?
- There is no credible current published average, and anyone quoting one is guessing. The 40-day average vacancy in the peer-reviewed turnover research covers 2018 to 2020 and predates the current market. Practice owners consistently report associate postings staying open for months. If your seat has been open longer than 40 days, the research figures understate your cost.
- How much does it cost to hire a veterinarian through a recruiter?
- Most US veterinary recruiters work on contingency and charge around 20 percent of the new hire's first-year compensation, within a reported range of 20 to 30 percent. At the Bureau of Labor Statistics median veterinarian salary of $130,100 for May 2025, that is roughly $26,000 to $39,000 per hire. The guarantee behind the fee matters as much as the percentage.
- Can a US clinic hire a veterinarian from Mexico or Canada?
- Yes. Veterinarian is a covered profession under the USMCA trade agreement, so licensed veterinarians from Mexico and Canada can work in the United States on a TN visa, which has no lottery and no annual cap. Graduates of AVMA-accredited programs sit the same NAVLE exam US graduates take. VetBridge USA manages licensing coordination and the TN process end to end for the clinic.
- Should I use relief veterinarians while I hire?
- If you need coverage next week, yes, and nothing else on this page is a substitute for that. As a long-term plan, relief is usually the most expensive way per hour to have a doctor in the building, and the relief doctor leaves with the client relationships they built. Use it as a bridge, not as the strategy.
- Is there really a veterinarian shortage?
- The long-term projections disagree. A 2023 report commissioned by Mars Veterinary Health projected a possible shortfall of up to 24,000 companion-animal veterinarians by 2030; a separate 2024 workforce study found no dire shortage anticipated. What is not contested is today's hiring market: the AVMA's 2024 census put veterinarian unemployment at 0.7 percent, so the pool of doctors available to move this quarter is small and every domestic recruiter competes for it.
Not sure which option you are at?
Tell us how long the seat has been open and what you have tried. If a job board, a recruiter or relief is the better answer for your situation, we will say so on the call and point you at it. That costs you fifteen minutes.