I am at least the third vet on this thread. I have been a cow vet, out by Subarctic Beef, I have been a small animal vet in a very posh city practice, and I have been a holistic vet, working on my own for the last 12 years. I am currently on sabbatical/retirement/search for new career. Burn out is so very common, for all the reasons stated on these posts.
I educate my clients as I believe there is no one treatment for any condition, treatment for a disease is based on the individual as well as the symptoms/diagnosis. I also believe that a vaccination schedule is wrong, and each animal's lifestyle, health, and age should be a concern. Economics are taken into consideration. I have taken a stand against my state laws on vaccination and expect to have my license yanked for not vaccinating geriatric, terminally ill, or chronically ill patients for rabies automatically. I was on call 24 hours a day, I didn't stay at the clinic. For the first 10 years I lived upstairs and did stay, more recently I would bring the critically ill patients to my home where I had a room set up for them. I answered the phone personally 24 hours a day. I took chickens, yardwork, baked goods, sewing and babysitting for payment. I have no complaints there. Yes, I worked pretty much 24/7 for 20 years, but I made enough to buy a small farm, a car, and put food on our table. Not a lot extra, no exotic designer stuff, but I don't need those things anyway.
I was always amazed, like the previous doctor, at how the people who demand the most time and procedures complain the most loudly about the prices. After years in a primitive situation, I am good at palpating..I can find fractures and tumors and abnormal cat kidneys and early pregnancies in dog bellies with ease, yet sometimes people really want an xray to verify my diagnosis..even when it doesn't change the treatment and then bitch about the cost. Or someone comes in with a terminally ill dog and wants to talk to me for 2 hours, then is astounded and wants their money back when I charge them...because I didn't give it a "shot".
And I reused sutures and medications that people returned. I used them to treat patients whose owners could not afford to pay the bill.

Here is my story. One week, my husband was out of town and left me with the 4 children and the practice. I was very worn out by the end of the week, as when there was an emergency, I had to wake all 4, oldest was 10, and get them in the car and take them along, and I was busy anyway all day during the week with regular appts. Thursday morning, I get a call at 7 am from a lady whose cat is in labor and having problems. Ironically, exactly a year earlier, I had done a pro bono C section/spay on this cat's mother for the same owner. She wanted me to do it for free again. I had no help at the clinic, I was past exhausted - not really safe to do surgery, and of course, she had no money. I agreed to meet her and examine the cat, which had already had one kitten. Upon examination, the cat still had a firm mass in the abdomen, but I was pretty sure it was just the uterus, no more kittens, but the lady didn't believe me and wanted a FREE xray. I told her that I was very certain it was finished queening and sent her home. That night, she called me again, begging for a free C section..now it is 10 pm, my kids are in bed, I am even more exhausted than I was in the am, and she is bullying me by saying I obviously don't care about animals. I refer her to an emergency clinic. She calls back, says she can't afford the emergency clinic, again tries to get me to do a free C section, after verbally abusing me a half hour earlier. I tell her no, sorry I cannot do another free one for her. She cries into the phone that I have no idea what it is like raising 4 children (yes, mine are all asleep), that she can barely make her cable payment (I don't have a TV), and that she has been on the internet all day trying to find help (wow! high speed internet and a cell phone!), yet she cannot come up with any money for an xray or a c section.
to make it short, she bullied some other vet into doing a c section early the next morning...and guess what! the cat had already finished queening and there were no kittens!!! at least it got spayed as well.
too many people like this out there. I quit.