After more than three decades under Dr. Tom Dowling’s care, Antrim’s Great Brook Veterinary Clinic has new ownership. Following Dowling’s retirement in December 2025, husband-and-wife veterinarians Dr. Nik Kokal and Dr. Kristina Hewitt took the reins Feb. 16.
As animal lovers, veterinarians and owners of the Nashua Pet Care Clinic, the two bring a wealth of experience and big plans for the Antrim clinic.
The pair aims to expand the clinic’s laboratory capabilities while bringing advanced dentistry, ultrasound and diagnostic imaging services to the practice.
“We aren’t just a typical spay, neuter, surgery clinic,” Kokal said. “We bring a higher standard of care most people only find in specialty hospitals.”
Demand for the new owners’ services was apparent almost immediately.
“We saw the same number of patients in a 21-hour week that we see in a 40-hour week in Nashua,” Kokal said of their first week in Antrim.
“Our long term goals for the clinic are expanding the building, maintaining the urgent care, adding appointments and building our capacity to care,” he added. Ultimately, the couple hopes to have four or five veterinarians practicing at the clinic.
“We’re following a scaled model, so the focus is on building up the facility,” Hewitt said. “We want to provide the highest quality of care at the best possible price.”
According to the couple, expanding the facility will help them meet those goals.
One challenge Kokal and Hewitt face is financing. They said everything they do is self-funded, meaning expansion will take time.
“I want really expensive equipment like two $28,000 oxygen tanks, but that just isn’t feasible,” Hewitt said.
Despite the challenge, the pair hopes to keep prices competitive with corporate veterinary hospitals and help lower-income customers care for their pets.
“Right now, there is an increase in economic euthanasias,” Hewitt said. “We’re hoping to mitigate that by providing a $400 diagnosis as opposed to the $2,000 some places quote.”
Having served eight years in the Air National Guard, Kokal said community service is a priority.
“I grew up in Francestown raising horses with my brother,” he said. “Right now I’m passionate about increasing the quality of medicine in the region and helping those with fixed incomes.” He added that an average veterinary visit costing $760 is unsustainable for many families.
As co-owners, the couple also emphasized their focus on employee satisfaction, citing high burnout rates in the profession.
“The veterinary field has a high suicide rate,” Hewitt said. “It’s important our employees are happy and comfortable with the job they’re doing, as there can be morally ambiguous decisions.”
“If they need to blow off steam, we have a Nintendo Switch set up in back where people can settle the score playing Mario Party,” Kokal added.
So how did the two veterinarians meet and form a successful working relationship while raising three young children?
It started nearly 15 years ago — and 3,000 miles away in Scotland.
“We met studying while in Glasgow,” Hewitt said.
The Sarasota, Florida, native spent her undergraduate years studying in Florida before attending North Carolina State University for graduate school.
“I decided to become a vet and chose to study in Glasgow,” she said.
Kokal completed his undergraduate studies at Keene State College before also heading to Glasgow for veterinary school.
The two met during their first year of study and married in 2016 after graduating.
“After graduation, I did an internship at a large referral hospital in Connecticut,” Hewitt noted. “There, I received advanced training in ultrasound and diagnostic imaging.”
She then worked in Keene and Peterborough’s Animal Care Clinic.
Kokal first worked in Henniker before moving to the Nashua clinic.
“Eventually, we both started working at Nashua,” Hewitt added.
After working at Nashua Pet Care Clinic for more than a year, the couple purchased the practice to keep corporate entities out — the same philosophy they bring to Great Brook Veterinary Clinic.
When they aren’t caring for animals, Hewitt and Kokal spend time with their sons James, Sam and Theo at their home in Greenfield.