Dog and cat owners on Mérida’s east side will soon have a new place to take their pets for a checkup. Farmacias Similares has confirmed a location for its veterinary brand, SimiPet Care, at Circuito Colonias and Calle 25-A in the Lázaro Cárdenas neighborhood, next to a 24-hour Farmacias Similares location facing CETIS 112.
The clinic is part of a chain launched in June 2025 by Farmacias Similares, the discount pharmacy company known for its Dr. Simi mascot and low-cost medical consultorios. SimiPet Care applies the same model to pets: walk-in visits, no appointment required, and a general consultation priced at MX$75 (about US$4). Additional procedures, including vaccines, deworming and sterilizations, start at MX$30 (about US$1.50). Discounted pet medications will also be sold on-site.
The setup will be familiar to anyone who has used Mexico’s “doc in a box” clinics, the walk-in medical offices attached to pharmacies that Farmacias Similares pioneered for human patients in the late 1990s. That format, officially known as consultorios adyacentes a farmacias, now operates at roughly 20,000 locations nationwide and handles nearly ten million consultations a month, typically for MX$50 to MX$75 a visit. SimiPet Care is essentially the same idea with a veterinarian in place of a physician: same company, same walk-in structure, same price point, pet food and medication in place of human prescriptions.
According to local reports, the Mérida clinic will operate daily, Monday through Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. That’s a longer week than the company has advertised elsewhere; SimiPet Care’s first location in Mexico City, and its published company-wide standard, runs Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sundays only until 3 p.m. Confirming hours directly once the Mérida clinic opens would be worthwhile.
Why Farmacias Similares Went Into Veterinary Care
Company leadership has framed the expansion as a response to a specific gap in Mexican pet care. “We realized that in Mexico there is a shortage of veterinary services, which come at a high cost,” said Víctor González Herrera, executive president of Farmacias Similares, when the first SimiPet Care clinic opened in Mexico City’s Escandón neighborhood.
The numbers behind that statement are notable. Citing figures from Mexico’s national statistics agency, INEGI, roughly 70% of Mexican households own a pet, about 80 million animals in total, including nearly 44 million dogs and 16 million cats. Yet only 42% of pet owners seek professional veterinary care when their animals are sick or injured, a gap the company points to as its main opening.
SimiPet Care started with that single Mexico City consultorio and expanded quickly, with locations later opening in the State of Mexico, Puebla, Querétaro, Morelos, Jalisco and Hidalgo. Company leadership has said it hopes to open as many as 100 clinics nationwide, depending on demand. Services across the chain include general exams, vaccinations, deworming, wound care, glucose testing and the travel certificates required to fly with a pet.
The brand’s mascot, Dra. Lares, a gray-haired veterinary character introduced alongside Dr. Simi, has become the public face of the initiative on social media, where the company has built a following of more than 140,000 on Instagram alone.
Competition Follows
Farmacias Similares is not alone in spotting the opportunity. Farmacias del Ahorro, another major pharmacy chain, has also moved into the pet care market, launching its own veterinary products and services across physical stores and digital channels. The parallel expansion suggests Mexican pharmacy chains increasingly see pet health as a natural extension of their existing low-cost, high-volume model for human medicine.
Affordable veterinary access has been a recurring topic in Mérida, where the municipal government has also expanded its own network of low-cost clinics as part of an effort that helped the city join an international coalition focused on humane management of dog and cat populations. A SimiPet Care location would add a private-sector option to that landscape, particularly for residents on the city’s east side who are farther from the municipal veterinary clinic in Colonia Chichén Itzá.
No official opening date has been announced, and Farmacias Similares had not issued a formal statement confirming the Mérida location as of this writing. The address and hours below reflect the most recent local reporting and should be confirmed before visiting.
If You Go
- Clinic: SimiPet Care (Farmacias Similares)
- Location: Circuito Colonias and Calle 25-A, Lázaro Cárdenas neighborhood, Mérida, next to a 24-hour Farmacias Similares, facing CETIS 112
- Hours: Monday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., tentatively
- General consultation: MX$75 (about US$4)
- Minor procedures, vaccines, deworming, sterilizations: from MX$30 (about US$1.50)
- Appointment: Not required; walk-in, first-come, first-served
- On-site: Discounted pet medications and treatments
- Opening date: Not yet officially announced
Yucatán Magazine has the inside scoop on living here. Sign up to get our top headlines delivered to your inbox every week.
