Objectives: To investigate the effect of client complaints on small animal veterinary internists' welfare, job satisfaction and medical practices. Materials and MethOds: Cross-sectional anonymous survey study. Between February 1 and March 31, 2017, a web-based questionnaire was made available through the American College Veterinary Internal Medicine sub-specialty Small Animal Internal Medicine E-mail List Serve. results: A total of 92 completed surveys were available for review. Fifty-nine (64•1%) respondents received a client complaint during the previous 6 months with cost of care the most common reason (53•3%). Eighty-nine (96•7%) respondents worry about client complaints being made against them with 33 (35•8%) stating they worry "most of the time" or "all of the time." Thirty-two (34•8%) reported being verbally assaulted by a client in the previous 6 months and 27 (29•4%) reported being threatened with litigation during the previous 6 months. Sixty-six (71•7%) have reported changing the way they practice medicine to avoid a client complaint and 40 (43•5%) have considered changing their career because of complaints made against them. clinical relevance: Client complaints are a frequent problem among small animal veterinary internists that have detrimental effects on job satisfaction, psychological distress and medical practices.

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