The Pet market accounted in 2015 for a turnover of more than 100 billion dollars in the world, with Brazil accounting for the third largest value - 18 billion Reais, or 7.6 percent growth compared to 2014. The veterinarian segment, responsible for 8 percent of these revenues, has increased considerably in recent years, through an industry professionalization process. Where once there were small family practices, clinics and hospitals, today they are growing, specializing and becoming increasingly competitive. In this scenario, and facing customers increasingly more demanding and well informed, managers have been making efforts to transform their businesses in more efficient and profitable firms. This work aims to identify the main forces acting on veterinary establishments market and evaluate the competitive strategies adopted by these companies to be successful in this scenario, according to the methodology of Michael Porter. Therefore seven managers of veterinary clinics in the state of Rio de Janeiro were interviewed. The results show that investments in innovation, infrastructure and skilled labor stumbles in industry barriers such as the difficulty of labor legalization, scarce management skills by the newly formed and complex bureaucracy, whether municipal, health surveillance or determined by the Federal Council of Veterinary Medicine. Although respondents report that the sector lacks a general strategy, there businesses have been successful by applying a strategy with narrow scope and differentiation.