The team at Hastings Lake Animal Hospital serves those in the Edmonton area, including Sherwood Park, Tofield, Ardrossan, Strathcona County and Beaver County. As a client, you become part of the Hastings Lake family. We love to work with you to provide the best veterinary care for your four-legged family members...and pet poultry and waterfowl.  We don't want to forget our farm flocks!  
If you are interested in applying for work with us we are always on the lookout for great additions to our practise.  Email your resume and cover letter to drkaren@hastingslakevet.com.
​Please visit us at #1 20332 Twp Rd 512, Sherwood Park.

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Dr. Karen Allen

Dr. Allen graduated from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon in 1995, after completing a Zoology degree at University of Alberta and Bamfield Marine Station. She has been working in the veterinary industry in Canada for over twenty five years in private practice and as the National Medical Director for VetStrategy, and each day she is still awed by the resilience and tenacity of her patients and the compassion and dedication of her clients.
Dr. Allen is grateful for every opportunity to build relationships with her clients and their families and is dedicated to educating pet owners and offering veterinary care that is tailored to each individual pet and their family. Her goal is to enrich the lives of both the animals and the people in her community by offering volunteer programs, kids veterinary camps, educational seminars and of course by offering veterinary care to companion animals, farm pets, stray animals, surrendered animals and wildlife. Veterinary medicine has been an amazing journey for Dr. Allen, which has brought her a tremendous amount of joy, and she is enjoying continuing her career close to home with her family, friends and neighbours close by.

Dr. Dani Montoya

Dr. Dani joined our practise in the spring of 2017.  She graduated from the University of Calgary with her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.  Dani finished high school in Wales where she discovered her love of sheep and other small ruminants.  She grew up on an acreage outside of Edmonton riding horses and playing with animals of all types and is happy to return home to practise.  Dani decided at the age of four she wanted to be a veterinarian, although at that time she specifically wanted to be a space veterinarian looking after dogs and monkeys on their interstellar journey!  Dani is very happy to be at a practise that allows her to work with companion animals and hobby farm pets and loves the variety of her day to day work.  You will rarely catch Dani without a big smile on her face - she loves what she does and we appreciate her enthusiasm and skill on our team!

Stephanie Essex, RVT

Steph started her training in Kamloops to become a Respiratory Technologist as of September 2020.  We still stay in touch with her and miss her dearly - wishing her the best in her studies and her new career!  Although a rather scary time to start Respiratory Technology Steph is committed to continue to help her patients no matter what.  We hope her human patients are better behaved then some of her veterinary patients!

Ashley Ouellette, RVT

We love hiring local people to staff our practise and Ashley was the perfect fit for us!  She grew up on an acreage in the Ardrossan area and has always wanted to work with animals. This led her to look into the veterinary world. She took the Animal Health Program at NAIT and graduated in 2008. She began working at Park Veterinary Clinic while still in school in 2007 and continued there after graduation. There she gained experience working with dogs, cats and small exotic pets. In 2016 she took a break from work to start her own family. She now lives on a small acreage with her family, their dogs and a few cats. Ashley missed working with animals and has recently started working part time at Hastings Lake Animal Hospital to help us out on surgery days and Saturdays. She looks forward to getting back into the veterinary world and helping everyone with all their pet’s needs!  Ashley is our go to girl for some of our toughest customers - yes, you know who you are my four-legged red flagged friends!  Ashley's calm, unflappable demeanour allows her to very successfully work with some of our trickiest dogs who would otherwise be difficult for us to care for.  

Trina Broen, RVT

Trina is another local girl and in fact, she and her partner live just a stone's throw from the clinic.  She started with us in the summer of 2020 - in the midst of the pandemic which took a lot of courage to change jobs during that period.   Trina has a tiny little Chihuahua and a great big German Shepherd!   Trina works full time so she's the friendly caring voice you hear checking up on your pets after their visit with us.  Trina is enjoying learning about all our farm pet species that we work with and has fully embraced the culture of our practise.  We hope she stays with us a long, long time!   Now we just have to get her and Brandon to move to a farm so we can get her going with goats and chickens.... :)

Trista Kadatz, RVT

​Trista is joining us with many years of experience as an RVT, having started her career in 2003.  Trista is our Monday RVT with Trina and has a wealth of experience with most species but is especially fond of her bunnies!   She raises sheep, fancy chickens and pet bunnies on their farm.   Throw in a few horses, a Great Dane, a Schnauzer and some Devon Rex cats and Trista has a full compliment of critters to keep her busy.  Trista was born and raised locally and now she and her husband are raising their children in our community.  Before she joined our practise she volunteered every year with our Ministik Farm Cat Spay/Neuter Clinic - so we always knew we loved her!  She's a great fit for our practise and has amazing clinical skills as a technician.  You can always tell when Trista is on shift because things get placed in high spots where the rest of us mortals can't reach!  

Danielle Gauthier, RVT

Danielle joined us in the fall of 2020 to fill in over the winter while she is off from her Forestry job.  She is definitely one of our favourite things about winter!!  Danielle and her Red Heeler, Mel are a perfect addition to the practise and they fit right in like they've been with us for years!  
Danielle has a wealth of experience doing emergency medicine and has boundless energy and enthusiasm for all things veterinary.  She really loves the pets and dotes over each and every one of them.  She's always smiling and super positive and we are really going to miss her when she goes back to the forests up North for spring, summer and fall.  
Mel is the wonder dog who gets along with absolutely everybody and loves to come to work with Danielle.  

Ryan Koop, UCVM Veterinary Student (Class of 2024)

Ryan grew up on a farm outside of Tofield raising cows, horses, chickens, sheep, pigs, bison and even ostriches with his family. His passion for veterinary medicine started in high school, and he is currently attending the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. He hopes to become a mixed animal veterinarian someday. He has experience with both large and small animals, with a particular soft spot for farm dogs. Ryan is very excited to be part of the team at Hastings Lake Animal Hospital as a veterinary student where he can continue to develop his skills for his future career! You can catch him and his dog Ella at the clinic on Saturdays!

Krista Peters, Veterinary Assistant/Receptionist

Krista joined us in 2019 after deciding to leave her first profession as a hair stylist and salon owner.  She decided to take a leap of faith and do what she loved so took some online retraining in veterinary medical assisting and sent her resume out to see what would happen.  
Fortunately we were able to snap her up and she has been an absolute gem.  Krista is super creative and crafty, loves all our little patients and keeps thing running tickity-boo up front for us.  I know this will come as a shock...but veterinarians are not known for our skills in organizing the frontend!  lol!   
Krista and her husband recently bought a little local farm and have fully embraced farm life with their young son.  Her facebook posts are heartwarming, hilarious and always endearing showcasing her adorable son, baby alpacas, goats, dogs and the amazing projects her husband builds for her farm pets!  (We are all jealous!)

Sheri Tory, Veterinary Assistant/Receptionist

Sheri and her family have been clients of ours since we opened and when she decided to return to the work force she thought the clinic would be a great place!  Sheri's daughter Jade volunteered with us tonnes and we always thought the first Tory to be in our employ would be Jade but Sheri surprised us with her resume and we are so happy to have her positive, cheerful presence at the clinic.  She works as a veterinary assistant and receptionist for us.  Sheri and Jade have pretty much every kind of farm pet you can imagine - fancy birds, mini ponies, horses, dogs, cats, and a crew of very sweet goats.  Sheri always has a funny story to share with us and she is a great resource for clients.  Her husband built her a beautiful barn this winter for all their critters!  

Jayden Siminiuk, Veterinary Assistant

Jayden was one of our first ever volunteers when we opened the practise and has been a part of our staff since 2018.  She is always cheerful, positive and eager to do whatever needs to be done.  Jayden keeps the hospital sparkling clean, administers Beaker's diet program (!), takes care of our clinic pets and rescue animals and helps with pretty much everything around the clinic.  Jayden adopted two of our rescue cats - Lily & August - who were two black kittens who weren't having any luck finding a home.  
Jayden did her work experience with us as well and we're glad she has decided to stay on with us while she continues to pursue her education. 

Bobbi Boyd, RVT Student 

Bobbi has been with us since 2018 and started her training in become a Registered Veterinary Technologist in September 2020.   Bobbi has a very sweet, quiet manner with animals and people which is always appreciated.  She is our resident IT expert, takes all the best photos and has the beautiful handwriting you see on all our signs!   She's on our Saturday crew when she's in school and picks up more shifts in the summers.  Bobbi is another local girl who grew up riding horses and enjoying farm life - she recently adopted "Chucky" who was one of the Chilli Peppers, a litter of little rascals from a feral mama cat.  We really hope she stays with us forever as an RVT!

Dandelion, Clinic Cat

Dandelion has happily retired to  Dr. Allen's house effective December 2020.  She was tired of being blamed for Beaker's inappropriate urination habits and also completely disgusted with having to eat Beaker's diet food.  She is her usual svelte, busy self at Dr. Allen's and has settled in perfectly.  She is a big fan of the PetSafe Automatic litterbox - much to our surprise!   And happily eats NON-DIET Royal Canin GI Moderate Calorie canned and Royal Canin Calm dry kibble.  

Beaker, Clinic Cat in Training...he will always be 'in training' status!  lol!

 Beaker was born in the clinic - his mama was a stray who was brought in by a client and that very evening she had her kittens in the clinic.  Beaker tried a pet home but the dog wanted to eat him so he tried to live with Dr. Karen...but...Beaker's dirty secret is that he's not 100% on the litterbox.  Soooo....he's training to be a clinic cat where the odd accident isn't that big of a deal.  You'll see him lounging around in reception looking for cuddles meeting new friends.   He happily leaps into clients' cars for snuggles - whether he's invited or not - and thinks curbside service is his own personal social club.  He's a die-hard antimasker much to our chagrin.
Beaker is chronically on a diet - watch for his new diet club coming in 2021 - Beaker's Big Boned Cats Club :)
Beaker is not a fan of any of the litterboxes but if he had to choose one he likes the Pidan Studio Snow House Igloo litterbox with Cat Attract Litter please and thankyou.  He eats Royal Canin Satiety Canned three times daily - no kibble for our chubby chicken.   Overweight = No Kibble.  Beaker would prefer to weigh 8kg, we have set a very achievable goal of 5kg for him.  He thinks we're crazy...

Molly, Clinic Cat (but could be adopted to the right home)

Molly was surrendered in September 2020 after many, many veterinary visits to try to figure out a way we could manage her severe allergies and her barn cat status.  She absolutely LOVES being a clinic cat - she tolerates Beaker just fine - and is very happy to enjoy the indoor life.  
Molly has severe environmental and food allergies that cause a dramatic and very painful reaction in her mouth and on her face.  She eats Royal Canin Hypoallergenic HP dry and canned which helps a lot.  She requires long term medication to manage her environmental allergies. 
She is the sweetest girl and loves to chat away with us as she makes her rounds of the clinic.  She is happy to use ANY litterbox we offer her but she does prefer her litterbox upstairs if she has an option!