Simsbury Veterinary Hospital

Just found out word of mouth that the office is closed. After going there for 35 years and not even a postcard to let us know. Dr k was great but he should be utterly disappointed in how this happened.

I have brought my pets, both cats and dogs to Drs. Korten and Potter since moving to Granby in 1996. In 20 years I've experienced new pets, regular check-ups, accidents and sadly a few deaths. No matter what the reason you bring your precious furry friend to Simsbury Veterinary Hospital (SVH), they always show love and compassion for all of you. They offer boarding at very reasonable prices, sell pet food and supplies, send reminders for annual check-ups and get to know you and your pet personally. I strongly recommend SVH on Hopmeadow Street in Simsbury.

After 8 years of quality care, Dr. Korten is suddenly gone, and we will not be back! When we picked up our dogs after boarding elsewhere for the holiday, we were told one of our dogs had developed an abscess. Simsbury Veterinary Hospital was already closed for the holiday weekend, so we took him to a 24-hour hospital the next morning, where we were given antibiotics and painkillers and advised to take him to his vet for follow-up. Upon calling Simsbury Veterinary Hospital after the holiday, we were told Dr. Korten retired. Apparently, rather than sending letters/texts, he posted it on Facebook and his website. When we came to him years ago, he didn't even have a business email and only faxed, so I certainly had no idea I should follow him on Facebook. I have since found that they posted only once or twice a year and that the retirement was posted only a few weeks in advance. By the way, I called and came to the office less than a week before he retired and no one mentioned it. The new vet is only working 3 days per week and could not see us until 2 weeks later. She refused to work us in as an emergency and could not refer us to another vet. The office staff told me the vet said I should just "call around." Thankfully, a friend suggested East Hartford Animal Clinic who were able to get us an appointment the following day. Sadly, we have a preliminary cancer diagnosis, which is just made worse by the utter lack of professionalism and concern shown by this new vet at Simsbury Veterinary Hospital. It would have been much better to just give a few months notice for the staff to find new jobs and families to find a new vet and just shut down, rather than leaving us out in the cold at the worst possible time. Terrible!!

Dr. Korten had provided my family's animals with compassionate and REALISTIC care for 15+ years. He is best suited for the practical pet owner and will never sell you, or guilt you into, any type of care or treatment he doesn't consider critical to the well-being of your pet. Imagine your loved one is on hospice... would you want to subject them to treatments that won't alter the outcome, or instead, would you make the person comfortable until then? I believe Dr. Korten has the same approach-- treat what can be treated, accept what cannot. That's a hard one for some pet parents to accept, but I appreciate the simplicity and directness of his approach. That being said, this clinic is not Tufts University Vetinary School of Medicine. Dr. Korten is the animal medicine equivalent of your family doctor, and in my opinion, is not supposed to be a specialist of all conditions. If you find something wasn't working, ask for a referral to higher care.

I feel like Dr. Korten let me and my beautiful German shepard (who lost her life at 3 half years old on May 18, 2022) down since the day we went to his practice on a referral. I was told by the veterinarian that she had food and skin allergies. They said we needed to put her on a special food diet. Well, needless to say the food and medicine they kept prescribing to her was not working. She went form 65 lbs. to 54 in one year. I kept saying it is something else, But I left it to the experts to figure it out. So they kept prescribing medicine after medicine and still nothing. By now my baby was at 42 lbs and I kept calling in desperation and was told now " There is nothing more I can do, it is out of my wheelhouse of expertise. " WOW!!! He told me to find another vet that he wipes his hand of her!!!! Why couldn't he do that long before she lost her life. Here is the worst part. It was not food allergies she had, it was a thyroid issue that could of been treated. 😭 He needs to retire!!! If you can not keep up with the ever ending changes in the medical field then you need to hang up your stethoscope.