Newburyport Veterinary Clinic: Shankin Michael DVM

Arrived with choking dog and they refused to see him stating the vets were too busy. Do not bring your pets here for an emergency.

Short Version: If you have a French Bulldog, pug or any breed that has known health problems I would steer clear of this practice. They misdiagnosed my Frenchies eye issue, made it worse with initial the treatment, corrected the treatment, and still he almost lost his eye because of the initial misdiagnosis and lack of recommendation from them to see a specialist. Long Version: We brought our dog here for years, staff has always been amazing, nice and developed a great relationship with most of the staff. We initially brought our frenchie for an eye issue. It was puffy, he kept kind of closing it, squinting. He originally saw Dr. Burba who said he had conjunctivitis,, no uclers and said to treat him with a steroid ointment for 10 days twice a day. We treated him with the ointment, but luckily would forget to do it started to look better than when we used to ointment, but after a few weeks it seemed to get worse. We then went in for a recheck because it wasn't getting better, told them it seemed to get worse with the ointment. Dr. Kim Petty re-examed his eye and said to restart treatment with the steroid cream and make sure to do the full 10 days (Despite us saying we thought it was making it worse). So I did just that, 2 times a day like clockwork, and halfway through he developed a hole in his eye, which turned out to be a corneal ulcer. We then saw Dr. Pope for the Corneal Ulcer who completely changed his treatment and said steroid ointment will make ulcers worse. Which in this case appeared to be what happened in our opinion. Dr. Pope then begin to treat the ulcer, saw us very frequently, I really hate writing this negative review because Dr. Pope honestly was amazing, I could tell she really cared about him and wanted to help fix the issue with his eye. It was improving from what she told me and after multiple re-checks she said he was good to go back to normal life, no drops, keep an eye on it. Fast forward I want to say 1-1.5months he still had a noticeable hole there but we assumed it was healing. He then one night lightly swiped at his eye and boom. Liquid shot out of it, I rushed him to an emergency vet who then referred us to Tufts who had an Opthalmology team. To wrap this up, he had a corneal perforating leaking ulcer, the team at tufts said they would NEVER give a Frenchie or similar breed a steroid ointment for their eyes under any circumstance because they are prone to these problems which steroids either cause or make 100x worse. With all this said, Dr. Pope was amazing but I really am disappointed in this clinic because of the initial recommendation from both Dr. Burba and Dr. Kim Petty to use steroid ointment for 10 days which directly caused him to develop a Corneal Ulcer. Then, with such a bad Corneal ulcer I don't understand why the team didn't recommend we go straight to a specialist and have them look at his eye. I blame myself a lot for not logically thinking we should do that myself but I trusted the team here and did everything they said. Drops 6x a day, cone for almost 8 weeks...etc. After the rupture, the tufts team was able to save his eye with a graft surgery but this could have easily been avoided had he 1 not been treated with steroids and 2 been recommended to see a specialist once he developed the corneal ulcer instead of only treating it with drops. Graft surgery might have been avoided and they could have done a different procedure. I called the clinic to express my concerns (I'm a pretty calm person so I wasn't being crazy like someone normally would) but I wanted them to know this should have been avoided and they basically are the majority at fault for my Frenchie almost losing his eye. After stating everything above, I was told Dr. Pope would call to follow up. Didn't get a call, and in my patient history I requested because logically we're leaving the clinic after this they said: "called upset that ulcer ruptured when we were closed and had to seek care elsewhere". That's absolutely not what I said or was upset about, I was upset t

I've been going here for several years now with my cat. I can't say enough good things.Everyone is very calm and respectful. I never feel rushed. If you ask questions, they take time to answer and talk.Pricing is very fair and reasonable, especially for the high quality of care and professionalism.

Dr Shankin sold this practice several years ago.I have been taking my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel here since being diagnosed with a hereditary heart issue. Every doctor and tech we saw were so kind, empathetic, professional and helpful. Jacob was always so happy when he knew we were at his vet office.Unfortunately I lost Jacob last week. Always the hardest part of having a pet. The decision was not easy, however the process was made so respectfully and with such kindness it made his passing bearable.I can't recommend Newburyport Veterinary Clinic enough.

My 2 - 14 year old Persian cats were going here for 2+ years for regular care and urinary problems. After some blood work, they found renal problems. Dr Pope said that she would treat them until they needed to be euthanized. I called when it was bad and the receptionist (dr would not take my calls) told me that "they do Not just kill animals and I should take them to a shelter to do that." That was almost 6 months ago and I'm still traumatized. After leaving several messages, Dr Pope (or any other dr) never called me. We had to bring them to Countryside Vet in Chelmsford (their vet for 12 years). The dr there couldn't believe how bad they were - she was SO caring! Newburyport Vet was ok taking our money but didn't help when it counted.

I have taken my princess to this place for a long time, for both checkups and grooming. the grooming this last time was not good, they brought in a groomer from another location. her hair was all uneven, she had flakes on her not brushed through, she didnt smell good and looked like s**** I complained, nicely. I said I just wanted to let them know... I didnt expect anything in return. they told me , well you took her when the groomer gave her to you, so ... if you said something she would of fixed it. I said I was on my lunch break and did not have time to go over her with a magnify glass. They gave me other groomers to go to , the list goes on with disappointments from them. Ive never been treated so poorly for pointing out that I was disappointed with service. Are we suppose to just let people take out money for things that are not up to our expectations? I would never recommend this place to anyone who things of their pet as part of their family. My princess is my pride and joy, for them to think they can treat her and me like s*** is just wrong. Im done!

Good hours for working people. Everyone there is friendly and helpful Drs are on time with appointments

Dr pope is hands down the best vet I have ever worked with. very personalized care especially with covid going on attention to detail and being able to fit us in last minute due to puppy being sick. I will forever recommend Newburyport vet clinic

just met dr. Pope for the first time. I was very impressed!

We have take our pets there for years. The staff is very kind and caring.