I became a vet to help animals, not to hold so much grief. How do I cope?

You came into this to heal animals, and no one told you how much of the job would be holding suffering and sitting with grieving owners. That gap between what you expected and what you got is a real shock. It does not mean you chose wrong. It means the work is bigger and heavier than the dream that led you to it, and you are only now seeing its full shape. The truth is that caring for animals and caring for their people are the same job, and the grief is part of the care, not a detour from it. When you sit with an owner in their worst moment, you are helping, even though it does not feel like the healing you pictured. That presence matters as much as any treatment. But it draws on you, and you cannot pour from an empty well without running dry. Start by accepting that this emotional weight is part of the work, not a sign you are failing at it. Then build in real ways to refill: talk with peers who know this grief, protect your rest, and let yourself feel a loss instead of rushing past it. You do not have to be untouched to be good at this. You have to be tended, so you can keep tending others.