Not Said in Clinics, But Posted 55,000 Times Online: The Reality of Veterinary Burnout

Gershon Alaluf, DVM, MBA, Doctoral Candidate

The Quiet Epidemic

“PEOPLE ARE dying in vet med. VETS are dying. And it needs to get better.” (Reddit, 2023).

This anguished plea, posted in a veterinary forum, captures the stark truth. Veterinary medicine—a profession defined by compassion and care—is itself in crisis. The data are grim: male veterinarians are 2.1 times more likely and female veterinarians 3.5 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population (Nett et al., 2015). Behind those statistics are lives cut short, families shattered, and practices left in mourning.

But the numbers tell only part of the story. A scrape of more than 55,000 Reddit posts across veterinary forums reveals recurring themes that bring the crisis into sharper relief: exhaustion, shame, silence, and the relentless pressure to appear strong. Again and again, veterinarians admitted what many keep hidden: “I should be happy—I have the job I always wanted. I should be strong, not weak.”

Perhaps even more troubling than the burnout itself is the silence surrounding it. For every public tragedy, countless veterinarians suffer privately—burned out, depressed, disengaged, or numbed by cynicism. The silence is not accidental; it is cultural. For generations, veterinary medicine has carried an unspoken code: strength is expected, struggle is hidden. That inner script, reinforced by colleagues, clients, and the performative perfection of social media, fuels isolation. Burnout festers in the shadows.

Beyond Tiredness: What Burnout Really Is

Too often, burnout is collapsed into a single word: tired. But burnout is not merely fatigue. It is a recognized occupational syndrome with three interrelated dimensions (Maslach & Jackson, 1981).

The first is emotional exhaustion: the depletion of energy from long hours, moral stress, and relentless client demands. This is the most visible—vets sighing heavily between cases, dragging themselves into overnight shifts, or feeling too drained to celebrate wins.

The second is depersonalization, sometimes called cynicism. Here, empathy begins to fray. Clients become “difficult,” patients are seen as numbers, and colleagues become irritants. It is not that compassion disappears—it is that compassion becomes too heavy to sustain.

The third is reduced personal accomplishment—a gnawing sense that one’s work no longer matters. This stage is especially insidious in veterinary medicine because it intertwines with mistakes. Every veterinarian makes errors—missed diagnoses, surgical complications, communication breakdowns. But under burnout, these normal human lapses feel catastrophic. As one practitioner confessed on Reddit: “I made one error and I couldn’t let it go. It felt like confirmation that I wasn’t cut out for this job. The more tired I got, the more mistakes I made—it was a spiral.”

This is the snowball effect: mistakes feed self-doubt, self-doubt fuels disengagement, and disengagement increases the risk of further mistakes. What could be moments for learning become cycles of shame.

Validated tools such as the Maslach Burnout Inventory confirm this tripartite structure, and veterinary studies reinforce it (Chigerwe et al., 2014; Ouedraogo et al., 2021). Yet in professional discourse—on Reddit threads, in conferences, even in some research—burnout is often reduced to exhaustion alone (Steffey et al., 2023). This oversimplification is dangerous. A vacation may ease fatigue, but it cannot restore lost empathy or rebuild shattered efficacy.

Burnout is not simply tiredness. It is the erosion of energy, empathy, and efficacy—the very qualities that make veterinarians effective and compassionate caregivers.

The Scope of the Problem

The empirical evidence is unambiguous. The Merck Animal Health Wellbeing Study (2020) found that half of U.S. veterinarians were experiencing moderate to high burnout, and 92% cited stress as one of the profession’s most pressing concerns (Volk et al., 2020). Nearly 40% reported seriously considering leaving the profession altogether.

A survey of 11,000 veterinarians revealed that 9% were experiencing severe psychological distress, yet many had not sought treatment (Nett et al., 2015). Among students, burnout emerges early: emotional exhaustion climbs steadily during training (Chigerwe et al., 2014). Specialists are not immune either: one study found 62% of veterinary teaching faculty met burnout criteria, and emergency/critical care clinicians consistently report the highest levels (Steffey et al., 2023; Neill et al., 2022).

The consequences extend beyond personal suffering. Burnout drives turnover, absenteeism, and declining productivity. Neill et al. (2022) estimated that the economic cost of burnout in veterinary medicine runs into the billions annually. Canadian data confirm similar patterns, with resilience and supportive workplace cultures significantly reducing risk (Perret et al., 2020).

The Reddit scrape of 55,000 posts echoes these findings in real time. Practitioners talk of collapsing under overwhelming caseloads, of being “too drained to feel human,” of colleagues leaving the profession mid-career. The data are quantitative; the posts are qualitative. Together, they paint the same picture: a profession under strain, with cracks widening.

This table presents a concise summary of themes identified in the analysis of 55,249 Reddit posts and comments from veterinary professionals. Each theme is defined briefly and illustrated with an impactful quoteThis table presents a concise summary of themes identified in the analysis of 55,249 Reddit posts and comments from veterinary professionals. Each theme is defined briefly and illustrated with an impactful quoteThis table presents a concise summary of themes identified in the analysis of 55,249 Reddit posts and comments from veterinary professionals. Each theme is defined briefly and illustrated with an impactful quoteThis table presents a concise summary of themes identified in the analysis of 55,249 Reddit posts and comments from veterinary professionals. Each theme is defined briefly and illustrated with an impactful quoteThis table presents a concise summary of themes identified in the analysis of 55,249 Reddit posts and comments from veterinary professionals. Each theme is defined briefly and illustrated with an impactful quote

Why Veterinarians Stay Silent

If burnout is so pervasive, why is it not discussed more openly? The answer lies in shame and stigma.

One practitioner admitted: “I know I’m burning out, but saying it out loud feels like failure. My boss worked 80-hour weeks for decades. If I admit I can’t handle this, I’ll look weak.” This aligns with research showing that veterinarians internalize stress as personal weakness, leading to self-stigma and reluctance to seek help (Cardwell & Lewis, 2019). A UK study found that the most common barriers to accessing care were “admitting to others having a problem, being labeled, and fear of the consequences” (Cardwell & Lewis, 2019).

Generational divides intensify the silence. As one young vet vented online: “Older vets complain that young people have no grit and don’t want to work. Yeah, we don’t want to work 80 hours a week for $70k. I was told by a couple practice owners if I wanted banker’s hours I should become a banker. So I did… And they’re gobsmacked that vets are fleeing or killing themselves.”

Debt adds another gag order. “Clients think we’re money-hungry, but I’m drowning in debt. I can’t say no to extra shifts because my loans don’t care if I’m tired,” another practitioner wrote.

In the Reddit scrape, silence emerged as one of the most consistent themes. Veterinarians fear that admitting burnout will jeopardize their reputation, relationships with colleagues, or even their jobs. The cycle is self-reinforcing: shame silences disclosure, silence prevents support, and lack of support deepens burnout.

Seasoned Practitioners: Quiet Pillars, Hidden Struggles

Paradoxically, the silence can be loudest among the most experienced practitioners. One older vet admitted: “I’ve been in practice 25 years. The technology changes faster than I can keep up. I’d rather stay late reading journals than ask a younger colleague for help—it feels humiliating to not know.”

Empirical research confirms that rapid advances in medical knowledge and technology intensify pressure for seasoned practitioners (Steffey et al., 2023). Rather than risk exposing gaps, many double down on work, silently fighting to maintain mastery.

The Reddit data highlight this generational strain repeatedly. Older practitioners post about “feeling left behind,” while younger ones express frustration at being told they lack grit. Both groups are hurting, but both remain quiet—creating intergenerational rifts that reinforce isolation.

The Amplifier of Social Media

If silence has long been ingrained in veterinary culture, social media has placed it under a magnifying glass.

“Everyone else is hustling and thriving. Why am I the only one feeling drained?” wrote one vet. Platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram, filled with curated highlight reels of awards, conference talks, and newly opened clinics, amplify feelings of inadequacy.

At the same time, veterinarians are increasingly targets of online hostility. The AVMA has documented rising cases of cyberbullying, where a single negative client post can cascade into smear campaigns and even threats (AVMA, 2023).

Yet paradoxically, social media also provides lifelines. Groups like Not One More Vet (NOMV) have created confidential spaces where practitioners can voice their darkest fears without judgment. The Reddit scrape itself is evidence: tens of thousands of posts where veterinarians, often anonymously, lay bare their struggles. One user reflected: “I thought admitting burnout would end my career. Instead, it saved it. The day I said ‘I need help,’ I found out half my colleagues were feeling the same. None of us were alone.”

Social media, then, is both amplifier of pressure and conduit for connection—a paradox that shapes modern burnout.

A New View: Professional Sustainability

To truly address burnout, the profession must abandon the framing of it as personal weakness or mere exhaustion. The Job Demands–Resources model (Demerouti et al., 2001) shows burnout arises when demands chronically exceed resources. Maslach and Leiter (2016) argue the positive opposite of burnout is not rest but engagement—vigor, dedication, and absorption.

This points to a reframing: professional sustainability. Rather than asking veterinarians to simply endure, systems must be redesigned to sustain them.

• Structural: fairer workloads, realistic scheduling, adequate staffing.

• Relational: mentorship, psychological safety, team support.

• Psychological: emotional intelligence training, normalized access to therapy, self-compassion.

• Cultural: strength redefined as openness rather than stoicism.

The Reddit data reinforce this shift. Posts frequently call not for personal toughness but for systemic change: better staffing, healthier expectations, leaders who model vulnerability. Sustainability, not survival, is the way forward.

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