Covetrus LAST VERIFIED: August 6, 2026

Covetrus is a global animal-health company headquartered in Portland, Maine, formed in 2019 from the spin-off of Henry Schein Animal Health and its merger with Vets First Choice, and owned by private-equity firm CD&R since 2022. It combines veterinary supply distribution, veterinary pharmaceuticals, practice-management software, and prescription-management/online pharmacy services, reporting roughly 5,700-plus employees serving more than 100,000 veterinary customers. Its model integrates the supply chain with software: practices buy supplies and pharmaceuticals through Covetrus distribution while using its platforms to manage prescriptions that are filled and shipped directly to pet owners on the practice’s behalf.

Covetrus sells to veterinary practices through customer accounts — an account is required, and this is not an open storefront. The record lists no published MOQ, minimum order value, or payment methods; commercial terms are set at the account level, as is typical for veterinary distribution. Fulfillment runs through the company’s own distribution-center network. It is partially dropship-friendly in one specific sense: it operates prescription and online-pharmacy fulfillment shipped direct to pet owners on behalf of veterinary practices. General resellers and retailers sit outside its model; practices should contact sales for onboarding, credentialing, and account terms before planning purchasing around it.

Covetrus offers veterinary practices scale, an integrated software-plus-distribution stack, and direct-to-owner pharmacy fulfillment that few rivals match. But one caveat is serious and must be weighed: in February 2024 the company pleaded guilty, per the US Department of Justice, to criminal misbranding of veterinary prescription drugs, having shipped over $20 million in prescription drugs to unauthorized end-users. That is a significant compliance failure for a pharmaceutical distributor, and practices should ask directly what remediation and controls followed. Private-equity ownership also means less public financial transparency than a listed peer. A capable partner — but engage with eyes open on its regulatory record.