Dr. Andrea Aliaga-Leyton

Dr. Aliaga-Leyton was born in Chile. She is the first of four children. Raised in a big family, where gatherings happened every weekend with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. As a child, she was always rescuing animals and convincing her parents that they should have more pets. Given her passion for all animals and curiosity in medicine, she decided to study veterinary medicine. After graduating as a DVM, she practiced in Chile at a small animal clinic for over three years. She came to Canada in 2005 to pursue more studies and in 2008 graduated from The University of Guelph, OVC, with a Masters of Science in Population Medicine. She fell in love with Canada and decided to make it her home. Dr. Aliaga-Leyton took some time off to raise her only daughter while running a home daycare and volunteering for different organizations in the Region of Waterloo. Once her daughter started school, she decided it was time to return to the veterinarian world. Dr. Aliaga-Leyton validated her DVM degree in North America and graduated from the VSTEP program at The University of Guelph in 2017. After successfully completing all requirements, she started working as a locum for several clinics. With her passion for community service and volunteering, she worked for a non-profit low-income clinic. She enjoyed treating the great variety of daily cases and making a difference for the animals in her care and their families. While performing as a locum at Simcoe Animal Hospital, an opportunity arose for her to join the team full time. She is thrilled to begin this new adventure, grow further as a veterinarian, and continue helping families and pets in the community. When she is not at the clinic, Dr. Aliaga-Leyton loves spending time with her daughter, dogs Frosty and Buddy and cat Bonnie. She also enjoys trying to keep up with her daughter's video and board game skills. Her other favourite pastimes include knitting, crocheting, hiking, swimming, camping, biking, jogging, and travelling to see family. She especially enjoys gathering with friends and spending time with her partner.