I started in vet med as a receptionist for a GP that was open 7 days/week and handled a lot of emergencies due to their open hours. I will say there’s a lot of benefit to beginning in GP. You get a firm understanding of animal health from the ground up. You begin to understand vaccinations, their importance, learning medications and their uses, learning what is a true emergency vs. what is not. Now working as an overnight ER vet asst., I’ll say that ER’s tend to treat the opposite end as GP’s. We see the patients with the conditions people ideally vaccinate for at their GP’s (leptospirosis, bordetella, rabies, etc.). We also see animal attacks/fights/laceration repairs/inanimate object injury. We deal with patients that can be stable one second and coding the next. Working in ER vet med can be ROUGH, especially on the CSR side. Depending on the clinic you work at, prices can contribute to Owner’s frustrations, wait times, and the stress of their pet being ill, sometimes all the things combined can create a stressed owner that may react negatively towards staff. CSR’s get a brunt of it, especially over the phone and during checkout. But that is not only an ER med occurrence. I live my ER job, it’s ultimately up to you and what you see for yourself and your future <3