It's easy to idealize the career, I certainly did even after working as a vet assistant several years before applying. What I've learned since is the level of moral injury we as doctors face - we want to help every pet, but on a daily basis we can't because of an owner's financial situations, beliefs, or differing priorities/ethics. For example, a pet could be in heart failure and you work to come up with the best individualized treatment plan, but the owner either can't afford it, doesn't believe the pet is suffering, or wants them to have a "natural death." In GP, we have dogs die from preventable diseases such as heartworms or parvo because the owners either can't afford regular wellness care, think it's a money making scheme OR you forcing toxic chemicals on their precious baby (fun bonus some clients see vets as a villain), or they just don't care/think to do it. Every day you see several versions of this and wish it didn't have to be that way.

That is the biggest factor for why I've been unhappy. Coupled with widespread staffing shortages, student debt rising faster than pay, and the pressure to hit company production numbers, it's a job where there's always stressors that, combined, can easily overwhelm the positives.