You already know retention is a problem because you don’t live under a rock. You've watched techs leave for other work, had candidates accept an offer and decline it again a week later, and tried at least three or four things to stop the bleeding.
So instead of writing another article about how vet staff turnover is bad, we asked 114 companion animal practices a more specific question. What actually worked?
This blog covers one section of our 2026 Veterinary IV Pump Survey. The full report includes data on equipment spending, staffing costs, fluid therapy trends, and business sustainability across 114 companion animal practices.
The one strategy that works (and it's the expensive one)
Strategy | % who said it worked |
Significant wage increases (10%+) | 61% |
Four-day work weeks | 47% |
No on-call/emergency hours | 38% |
Profit sharing/bonuses | 34% |
Paid mental health days | 29% |
Student loan assistance | 18% |
Nothing has really worked | 22% |
Sixty-one percent said raises of 10% or more were the strategy that actually moved the needle.
One independent practice owner in Detroit summed it up: "Money. I wish I could say our culture or mission statement or something fuzzy kept people, but the ones who stayed got meaningful raises. The ones who left went somewhere that paid more."
According to the 2025 AVMA Report on the Economic State of the Veterinary Profession, the most common raise across practices was 4% to 6% (42.6% of practices). Only 10.3% gave raises of 10% or more.
So 61% of practices say 10%+ raises are what retains staff, but only 1 in 10 are actually giving raises that large. That gap is the retention problem in one number.
22% said nothing has worked
Nearly one in four practices told us no strategy has made a meaningful difference. They've raised pay, added PTO, bought lunch for the team. People still leave at the same rate.
When you cross-reference with the rest of the survey, it starts to make sense.
86% of practices have at least one open position right now.
51% experience annual turnover above 20%.
82% say licensed vet techs are the hardest role to fill.
42% turn away 10%+ of appointment requests because they don't have the staff.
The AAVMC estimates the U.S. needs 50,000+ additional vet techs, and at current training capacity, it would take 30 years to close that gap. Mars Veterinary Health projects a shortage of 14,000 to 24,000 companion animal vets by 2030.
For some practices, the problem isn't what they're offering. It's that there aren't enough qualified people in the talent pool.
The $250/month finding most practices haven't tried
Only 18% of respondents selected student loan assistance as a strategy that worked. Small sample. But the results relative to cost were hard to ignore.
One practice owner in Philadelphia who offers $250/month toward staff loans said, "Two techs told me it was the reason they stayed when they had other offers. For $3,000 a year per person it's the cheapest retention strategy I've ever used."
Why does $250/month matter more than it looks? The average vet school debt for the class of 2025 was $212,499 among those with loans (AVMA data). For a tech choosing between two similar job offers, $250/month covering a full loan payment can be the deciding factor.
Image courtesy of Envato
How it compares
For a vet tech earning $40,000/year:
Strategy | Annual cost to practice |
10% raise | $4,000+ (plus payroll tax) |
15% raise | $6,000+ (plus payroll tax) |
Student loan assistance ($250/mo) | $3,000 flat |
It won't replace competitive wages. Nobody stays at a practice paying $5/hour below market because of a loan benefit. But as a complement to fair pay, it's efficient and it targets the exact financial pressure your youngest staff members carry.
Where does the money come from?
Our survey found that 39% of practices spend 31-40% of revenue on wages and benefits. Another 30% spend 41-50%. When labor already takes up that much of the budget, funding 10%+ raises or a new loan benefit means cutting costs somewhere else.
Equipment is one of those places. A new OEM infusion pump runs $3,000 to $6,000+. A patient-ready recertified pump doing the same job costs 30-50% less, saving $1,000 to $3,000 per unit. On a practice buying 2-3 pumps, that's $4,000 to $9,000 back in the budget.
That covers a full year of student loan assistance for one to three techs.
Same logic for repairs. A flat-rate depot repair that extends a pump's life by 3-5 years costs far less than an emergency replacement when something dies mid-shift. Staying on a preventive maintenance schedule instead of reacting to failures keeps costs predictable.
Saving $2,500 on a refurbished pump doesn't feel like a retention strategy. But when it funds the benefit that keeps a tech from leaving, that's what it is.
What does this mean for your practice?
Retention is a budget problem. Practices that keep staff are spending more on compensation. The ones who can afford it are managing their overhead well. Every dollar saved on equipment and operations is a dollar available for wages and benefits
Four things worth doing based on what 114 practices told us.
Audit your wage competitiveness. If your last raise was 4-6%, you're in the majority, but you're in the range our survey says doesn't change outcomes.
Look into student loan assistance. $3,000/year per employee, no payroll tax impact, and it directly addresses the financial pressure younger staff feel.
Review your equipment spending. Refurbished pumps, proactive maintenance, and flat-rate repairs all free up dollars that can go toward compensation.
Accept that some turnover isn't solvable at the practice level. The talent pipeline is decades behind demand. Focus on what you can control.
About this data
This data comes from the 2026 AIV-Vet Veterinary IV Pump Survey (114 companion animal practices across the U.S.). AVMA data is from the 2025 Report on the Economic State of the Veterinary Profession. Workforce projections are from Mars Veterinary Health (2023) and the AAVMC (2022, 2024).
AIV Vet has been in the veterinary equipment business for almost 2 decades. If you're looking at your equipment budget and wondering where to find room for better compensation, we should talk.