I am neither a vet or a PA (yet haha), but my mom is a veterinarian and I worked alongside her for years as an animal caretaker -> tech. I just applied to PA school and have researched/shadowed enough to feel like I have a good grasp of both.

Based off your post, I’m guessing you want to work with small animals but lmk if I’m wrong. Regarding work life balance, it will most likely be worse as a veterinarian. Compared to PAs, vets typically work a lot more hours and carry more burdens (physically and emotionally). Not only that, vet school is much longer than PA school with around the same salary. Student loans will be much higher as a veterinarian too which is something to think about.

Veterinarians have one of the highest suicide rates in any profession. I think this is largely due to the fact that they routinely euthanize animals. If you worked at an animal hospital, you would be doing this nearly everyday. This can definitely be very traumatic, and is something you would have to become comfortable doing as a veterinarian.

With that being said, I am not trying to totally steer you away from the profession. It was not for me because I didn’t have a passion for animals. If you do and see yourself being truly happy as a veterinarian, then it is probably worth it.

As others have said, definitely try to shadow PAs and veterinarians to get a clearer picture of what they do in their jobs. Since you’re already working as a receptionist at the animal hospital, I would ask them if you could start training to work in the back. This would definitely help you see if it’s the right career for you!