Veterinarians face complex trade-offs when prescribing antibiotics, balancing clinical needs, client expectations, and societal risks. This paper uses a choice experiment with U.S. veterinarians to examine how these factors are weighted. We find that veterinarians place greater weight on the probability of loss compared to its magnitude, regardless of subgroup. Animal welfare consistently emerges as the most influential factor in their decision-making, with willingness-to-pay estimates exceeding several hundred dollars. Similarly, veterinarians exhibit a strong aversion to high levels of antibiotic resistance risk, while showing limited sensitivity to low levels. The heterogeneity analysis further highlights opposing behavioral patterns between large animal and small animal veterinarians.
