VetLocator Scraper

Scrape VetLocator.com — a nationwide US directory of veterinary clinics, animal hospitals, and other pet professionals. Search by zip code + radius (with fine-grained category and specialty filters) or by city and state to get clinic names, full addresses, phone numbers, and more. HTTP-only, no login, no API key required.

What this actor does

• Two search modes: by zip code + radius, or by city + state
• Six curated categories: general practice, emergency/24-hour, holistic & alternative, house-call/mobile, equine/horse, and other pet professionals (groomers, sitters, trainers, etc.)
• Advanced filters: narrow by animal type treated (dogs, cats, exotics, horses, birds, reptiles...), veterinary specialty/procedure (dental, cardiology, surgery, vaccinations...), or holistic modality (acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy...) — combinable
• Full contact enrichment: fetches each clinic's own page for phone number, email, website, description and more
• Premium-listing enrichment: for VetLocator's featured Silver/Gold clinics, also pulls weekly hours, veterinarian/staff names, animal types treated, specialties, payment methods, insurance accepted, and current promotional specials — whatever the clinic itself has published
• Distance-aware: miles from your search zip code, when the source provides it
• Empty fields are omitted — you never get a field with null, "", or a placeholder value

Output per clinic

• clinicId — VetLocator's internal listing ID
• name — business name
• isVeterinarian — true for licensed veterinary practices, false for non-medical pet professionals (groomers, sitters, trainers, etc.)
• listingTier — standard, bronze, silver, or gold, reflecting how VetLocator itself features the listing. Silver/Gold clinics carry the richest data (see below).
• streetAddress, city, state, zip, fullAddress
• distanceMiles — distance from the searched zip code (when available)
• locationNote — a proximity note such as "within 10001 zipcode" when an exact distance isn't given
• phone, email, website — when the listing provides them
• description — the clinic's own "About" text, when provided
• specialOffers — current promotions/coupons the clinic has published (Silver/Gold listings only, when present)
• hours — weekly opening hours as {"monday": "9:00 am - 5:00 pm", ...}, only for the days the clinic publishes (Silver/Gold listings)
• staffNames — named veterinarians/staff (Silver/Gold listings, when published)
• animalTypesTreated — species the clinic treats, e.g. ["Cats", "Dogs", "Horses"] (Silver/Gold listings)
• veterinarySpecialties — medical services/procedures offered, e.g. ["Dental", "Vaccinations"] (Silver/Gold listings)
• holisticModalities — alternative/holistic services offered, e.g. ["Acupuncture"] (Silver/Gold listings)
• clinicServicesOffered — non-medical amenities, e.g. ["Boarding", "Grooming"] (Silver/Gold listings)
• paymentMethods — accepted payment types, e.g. ["VISA", "Mastercard"] (Silver/Gold listings)
• insuranceAccepted — pet insurance providers accepted, e.g. ["CareCredit"] (Silver/Gold listings)
• sourceUrl — the clinic's page on VetLocator.com
• googleMapsUrl — a ready-to-open Google Maps search link for the clinic's address
• recordType: "clinic", scrapedAt

If a search input is invalid (e.g. an unresolvable zip code), the actor pushes a single typed record with recordType: "error", errorType, and message instead of crashing.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	byZip	byZip or byCity
zip	string	10001	5-digit US zip code (mode=byZip)
radius	string	25	Search radius in miles: 5/10/15/25/50/100 (mode=byZip)
city	string	Los Angeles	US city name (mode=byCity)
state	string	–	2-letter US state code (mode=byCity)
category	string	general	general / emergency / holistic / housecall / equine / otherPetProfessional (mode=byZip; ignored if any Advanced filter is set)
otherPetProfessionalService	string	–	Required when category=otherPetProfessional
animalType	string	–	Advanced filter: species treated (mode=byZip)
vetSpecialty	string	–	Advanced filter: veterinary specialty/procedure (mode=byZip)
holisticModality	string	–	Advanced filter: holistic/alternative modality (mode=byZip)
clinicService	string	–	Advanced filter: amenity/service offered (mode=byZip)
fetchDetails	boolean	true	Fetch phone/email/description per clinic (slower, richer)
maxItems	integer	20	Hard cap on emitted records (1–2000)
proxyConfiguration	object	AUTO	Automatic fallback proxy; not required for normal use

Advanced filters (animalType, vetSpecialty, holisticModality, clinicService) only apply in byZip mode and can be combined with each other. When any is set, they take priority over category. City search (byCity) returns VetLocator's base listing for that city only — category and advanced filters are not supported by the source for city search.

Example: emergency vets near a zip code

{
  "mode": "byZip",
  "zip": "60601",
  "radius": "25",
  "category": "emergency",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: holistic/acupuncture vets

{
  "mode": "byZip",
  "zip": "94103",
  "radius": "50",
  "holisticModality": "54",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: groomers and pet-sitters near a zip code

{
  "mode": "byZip",
  "zip": "33101",
  "radius": "25",
  "category": "otherPetProfessional",
  "otherPetProfessionalService": "43",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: all vets in a city

{
  "mode": "byCity",
  "city": "Austin",
  "state": "TX",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Use cases

• Pet-care marketplaces — build a local veterinarian directory for your app or site
• Local SEO / lead generation — find veterinary businesses to reach out to in a territory
• Insurance & fintech — verify a policyholder's local pet-care providers
• Relocation services — hand new residents a list of nearby vets, emergency clinics, and pet pros
• Market research — measure veterinary/pet-services density across zip codes or cities
• Pet-owner apps — power a "find a vet near me" feature with real contact data

FAQ

What is VetLocator.com? A US-focused online directory of veterinary clinics, animal hospitals, and pet-service professionals, searchable by location and specialty.

Is this affiliated with VetLocator.com? No — this is an independent, third-party actor that reads VetLocator's publicly accessible directory pages.

What's the difference between category and the Advanced filters? category picks one of VetLocator's five main directory tabs (general/emergency/holistic/housecall/equine) plus "other pet professional." The Advanced filters (animalType, vetSpecialty, holisticModality, clinicService) are a separate, more granular facet search that can combine multiple criteria at once (e.g., "dogs" + "dental"). Setting any Advanced filter overrides category for that run.

Why do some records have distanceMiles and others have locationNote instead? VetLocator reports either an exact mileage from your search zip code, or — for listings very close to it — a proximity note like "within 10001 zipcode" instead of a computed distance. The actor passes through whichever the source provides; it never fabricates a distance.

Why do some clinics have no phone or email? Not every listing on VetLocator includes complete contact details — some are minimal/free directory entries. The actor only ever emits fields the source actually provides.

What does isVeterinarian: false mean? VetLocator's directory also includes non-medical pet professionals (groomers, trainers, pet-sitters, rescues, etc.). These are flagged isVeterinarian: false so you can filter them out if you only want licensed veterinary practices.

Does city search support the same filters as zip search? No — VetLocator's city+state search only returns its base "all veterinarians and pet pros in this city" listing. Category and Advanced filters require a zip code + radius search.

Why might a large city return fewer records than the result count shown on VetLocator's own city page? VetLocator's city-search pagination is not perfectly stable — re-requesting the next page can reshuffle ordering and reissue clinics already seen a page or two earlier. The actor fetches every page up to the source's own final (short) page and dedupes by clinic ID, but this server-side overlap means the number of unique clinics actually reachable through pagination can run somewhat below the headline result count for high-volume cities. This is a source-side limitation, not a bug in the actor.

Why do only some clinics have email, description, hours, staffNames, website, or service/payment lists? These come from VetLocator's paid Bronze/Silver/Gold listing tiers (listingTier), which is where clinics publish that level of detail. The free/unbadged "standard" tier — the large majority of listings — only ever provides name, address, and (when fetchDetails is on) phone; VetLocator's own clinic pages never include an email address or an "About" section for those. The actor never fabricates the richer fields for a listing that doesn't have them.

How fresh is the data? VetLocator listings are maintained by the businesses themselves and by the site's editorial team; the actor always reads the live page, so data is as current as the source.