Dr. Michelle West grew up in Madison, CT, where she graduated from Daniel Hand High School. As a child she loved all animals and was an avid equestrian competing in local shows and horse trials. As far back as she can remember, her dream was to become a veterinarian. One of her first jobs at 16 was as a kennel assistant at The New Haven Central Hospital for Veterinary Medicine. She was fascinated by this first introduction to veterinary medicine and began to plan her future path to attaining her dream. In 1989 she graduated magna cum laude with a BS in Biology from Mount Holyoke College. From there she moved to Ohio to attend The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. After graduating in 1993 with honors, she moved to Wisconsin to complete an equine internship. The following year she returned to Portland CT to work in an equine practice for three years before switching to small animal medicine and surgery. Since 1996 she has worked at three practices in this area before purchasing Shoreline Animal Hospital in 2006 with Dr. Berman.
They are always calm when we go and they are never scared or stressed. They know Dr. Michelle is going to take great care of them
Dr. West is married and has three children as well as two dogs, Taco and Belle. She has lived in Killingworth since 1995. Her oldest daughter, Lindsay, has graduated from Ohio State with a degree in food engineering and is employed as a mechanical engineer. Her second daughter, Erica, is studying industrial engineering at Ohio State. Her youngest, Brian, is graduating from high school this year and heading off to college in the fall. In her free time, Dr. West enjoys travel, walking, local theater, reading and being with family. One of her travel goals is to visit all of our National Parks! In the last few years she has been to Olympic NP, Big Ben NP, Yellowstone NP, Grand Teton NP, Everglades NP, Biscayne NP, Arches NP, Mesa Verde NP and Sand Dunes NP.