Port City Veterinary Referral Hospital

"Heartbreaking Horror Story: Brought my sweet Barney in on New Year's Eve for basic hematuria in urine. He was a little tired but still cheery and playful. I thought he had eaten 600 mg of ibuprofen or perhaps had a bladder / Kidney issue since, as I told the Dr. - he had been whimpering in pain the night before. The doctor who saw him took some tests, but did not take a basic urinalysis or any tests to see if the blood was related to the most obvious reasons for bleeding: bladder / kidney / UTI infection. Or, based on my concern of ingesting a prescription strength Ibuprofen, no tests to check for ulceration causing bleeding. When I told them my dog's poop had some blood in it, they did nothing. She (the vet) did not even consider Ideopathic Renal Hematuria - something dogs get when they just bleed port colored urine (he was doing) and it only takes time to cure, nothing else. All the other possible illnesses would have been simple to cure - hydration, possible antibiotics, and other simple actions. These, however, do not bring in the big bucks. I wish I had time to research all this before they killed Barney. The vets and staff played on my fear for my pup and immediately demanded $6,000 before doing anything to help my dog. Once I paid, before waiting to watch / observe my dog over the course of a little time or taking basic tests, the vet overzealously and quickly diagnosed him with a very serious disease. They took my very mildly anemic dog (25 RBC Count - a moderate anemia which any dog losing blood in urine would experience) and gave him an unneeded transfusion just a very short time after he arrived. ($$cha- ching,both for the vets themselves, and the facility). They did not match him properly and he had a massive reaction to this incompatible transfusion. He dropped immediately to 14 RBC - which is severe because his body rejected the plasma put into him. He was cheery one day, jaundiced and failing the next after being in their care. They chose the worst case and overzealously treated it before considering the simple, easily cured options. They never tested for the basics and never offered alternative options. They proceeded with dangerous procedures without EVER discussing the major risks or getting my approval. When a dog has a reaction to a transfusion, you are supposed to stop immediately and provide therapeutic care. They continued on. And then, within 2 days gave him two more transfusions. They eventually caused Transfusion-Related Acute Lung Injury after I asked them to slow down with transfusions. He died from this - hypoxia - what’s even worse is they kept him in a state called “bounding” which implies shock and cardiac panic - without putting him on high flow oxygen. He died a horrific gruesome death. They did not care about my dog - they cared about pushing costly, unneeded procedures to rack up a bill. My beloved young dog is dead. And he died alone (they barely monitored him) and needlessly. Please don’t ever trust your animal to this facility. An unwarranted and painful death to a dog who absolutely should have not died. Barney was happy, loving, enjoyed life and cared about his humans. He brought everyone a smile. Goodbye boo boo - my bfff."

"Dr Berger and the entire team did a tremendous job with a very difficult and scary time for me. I had to make a very hard decision for my elderly dog and doctor Berger was so kind and compassionate. She was extremely thorough and offered all of the information I needed. Her and the rest of the staff made sure I was comfortable and had both the information and the space I needed to make my decision, then provided the care so I could say goodbye to my furry soul mate in the most peaceful comfortable way possible. I’m so grateful for the team at Port City."

"Port City was absolutely wonderful! We brought our dog in for an acute sickness on Friday evening and we were seen immediately and given the best possible treatment. Everyone we interacted with, from staff to doctors, was kind, personable, compassionate and so sweet to our dog! We felt very comfortable leaving him there for overnight treatment and had all of our questions answered with care. I would not hesitate to bring our pets there in the future and highly recommend their care."

"It has taken me a few months to write this - so here we go. On July 31st at 9:24am we lost our sweet angel furbaby, Max. My husband and I were vacationing in York, ME and we knew something was terribly off with our dog. I called my regular vet and they recommended that we take Max to Port City Vet because they didn't think he was going to make it home to Massachusetts. I called Port City Vet and from the moment I spoke to someone they were nothing but kind and treated us with the utmost respect. As soon as we arrived there were 3 employees waiting for us and they took Max immediately and led us into a room. About 30 minutes later the doctor came in and told us there was nothing they could do for Max but make him comfortable until we could see him and say our goodbyes. They brought Max to us and let us have our last moments with him, the vet was even crying with us. There aren't enough words to express how incredible the team at Port City Vet was to us during this awful time. They carefully went over everything with us and let us know our cremation options and let us hold Max for as long as we wanted. It was one of the worst moments of my life but Port City Vet is truly incredible. When we got back from Maine, they sent us a beautiful card with Max's paw prints and most recently we received a beautiful letter stating that Port City Vet had made a donation in Max's name to Ethos Discovery - my husband and I were blown away by this. We have cried everyday since losing our baby boy, Max and life has been difficult to go through without him. He was our baby for 13 years. They had Forget me Not Cremation Services contact us and they were equally incredible and kind. Max is now home with us in a beautiful urn. Thank you to Port City Vet for taking care of our beautiful boy. Your team is incredible. In the future, if we do ever get a dog again, they will be my 1st choice in veterinary care."