If vet shaming alone drives veterinarians to the breaking point, then Filipino vets should be in very serious trouble.
We get bashed too.
We get called greedy.
We get blamed when a patient dies.
We get attacked over professional fees.
One angry client can summon an entire Facebook comment section.
And yet, when we talk about veterinarian suicide, we often hear alarming reports coming from countries like Canada and the United States.
Why?
I have wondered about this for years.
I have been fortunate to visit Canada several times over almost two decades, and I also had opportunities to shadow veterinary clinics in Calgary, Alberta.
The medicine felt familiar.
The life surrounding the medicine did not.
After duty, people went home.
People were friendly, but from my Filipino perspective, life felt more compartmentalized.
Different nationalities. Different cultures. Different humor.
Sometimes even joking with coworkers required figuring out first whether your humor would translate.
Then winter arrives.
Snow. Early sunsets. Long evenings indoors.
Beautiful when you’re visiting.
But when I imagined living there permanently, I sometimes felt something I rarely experienced back home:
I don’t belong here.
That was one reason I never seriously pursued migration. I still had choices in the Philippines.
And it made me appreciate something about Filipino life that we rarely consider a mental-health advantage.
Advertisements & Promos
SA PILIPINAS, ANG HIRAP MAG-ISA
Walk outside.
May kapitbahay.
Go to the corner.
May kakilala.
Open Messenger.
May group chat.
Come to work.
May staff na makulit.
Go home.
May pamilya.
And if nobody seems interested in your life?
Don’t worry.
May marites.
Funny, yes.
But underneath all that noise is something science increasingly considers important:
social connection.
The World Health Organization’s 2025 Commission on Social Connection reported that loneliness and social isolation have serious effects on physical and mental health. Loneliness is associated with depression, anxiety and thoughts of self-harm or suicide, while stronger social connections can protect health and well-being.
Maybe that matters more to veterinarians than we realize.
Because the Canadian data are disturbing.
A study involving 1,403 Canadian veterinarians found that 26.2% reported suicidal ideation during the previous 12 months. Participants also showed higher levels of burnout, compassion fatigue, anxiety and depression than general-population comparisons.
In the United States, researchers examined death records of 11,620 veterinarians from 1979 to 2015. Among them, 398 deaths were recorded as suicide, and suicide was disproportionately represented among veterinarians compared with the general population.
So no.
This cannot simply be:
“Na-bash kasi ng client.”
Veterinary suicide is far more complicated.
A recent review found that risk comes from a combination of workload, client conflict, euthanasia, burnout, depression, perfectionism and access to lethal medications.
And interestingly, the same review identified peer support and social support as protective factors.
That last part caught my attention.
Advertisements & Promos
MAYBE OUR SECRET WEAPON ISN’T TOUGHNESS
I don’t think Filipino vets are automatically stronger.
Maybe we simply have more opportunities to decompress.
Bad case?
“Tara, kain.”
Toxic client?
“Kape tayo.”
Terrible duty?
Someone sends a completely inappropriate meme to the group chat.
We laugh.
We rant.
We eat.
We tell stories.
We make jokes about our misery.
Then tomorrow, somehow, duty ulit.
That is not psychotherapy.
But it is connection.
Perhaps pakikipagkapwa, barkada, family, humor and our almost unavoidable interaction with other people give us a small protective buffer.
Sometimes Filipino society can be intrusive.
Everyone knows your business.
But perhaps there is another side to that.
Someone also notices when you’re disappearing.
Advertisements & Promos
BUT WE SHOULD NOT CELEBRATE TOO EARLY
There is one major problem with my theory.
We cannot confidently say that Filipino veterinarians actually have a lower suicide rate.
We simply don’t have good national veterinary-specific data to prove it.
And Philippine suicide statistics themselves have historically suffered from possible underreporting and misclassification.
A Philippine study found evidence that some suicides may be recorded as accidents or deaths of undetermined intent, with stigma around suicide contributing to the problem.
A more recent Philippine statistical study likewise warned that measurement errors could make reported suicide rates look lower than the true burden.
And Filipinos are not necessarily good at asking for professional mental-health help either.
A systematic review found that stigma remains a major barrier and that many Filipinos seek professional help only when problems become severe. Social support, however, was identified as an important facilitator of help-seeking.
So perhaps Filipino vets are surviving better.
Or perhaps some are suffering quietly.
We don’t know yet.
And that is precisely why we should study it.
But my experience abroad changed the way I look at our noisy Filipino culture.
The barkada.
The family.
The staff.
The neighbor.
The group chat.
The friend who suddenly says:
“Doc, tara. Kain tayo.”
Even the tsismoso and tsimosa.
Maybe veterinary mental health isn’t only about becoming tougher.
Maybe it is also about making sure that when a veterinarian finally closes the clinic door after one horrible day…
there is still another door somewhere that opens for them.
Because sometimes the difference is not that one veterinarian carries a lighter burden.
Sometimes the difference is that one veterinarian doesn’t have to carry it alone.
SOURCES
- Perret JL, et al. Prevalence of mental health outcomes among Canadian veterinarians. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 2020.
- Tomasi SE, et al. Suicide among veterinarians in the United States from 1979 through 2015. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 2019.
- Understanding the roots of suicide in veterinarians to inform prevention: A scoping review. 2026.
- World Health Organization. From loneliness to social connection: Charting a path to healthier societies. WHO Commission on Social Connection, 2025.
- Redaniel MT, et al. Suicide in the Philippines: time trend analysis (1974–2005) and literature review. BMC Public Health, 2011.
- Martinez AB, et al. Filipino help-seeking for mental health problems and associated barriers and facilitators: a systematic review. 2020.
Dr. Geoff Carullo is a Fellow and the current President of the Philippine College of Canine Practitioners.
Sharing this helps others understand what it really means to be a vet. Like and follow if you’re with us.
