About Dr Klaartje van der Schaaf
Senior Veterinarian
In 2000, Dr Klaartje spent a year in Australia after high school. During this time she fell in love with the country and vouched to return to live there one day. She then went on to study veterinary medicine at Utrecht University in The Netherlands, where she graduated from in 2007 as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. Whilst she initially wanted to focus on farm animal work, she quickly decided that small animal medicine was more her jam and thus changed course.
In 2012 she moved to Aberdeen in Scotland where she worked as an emergency veterinarian and then onwards to East London to work as a sole charge veterinarian in a lovely small practice with a high feline case load. During this time, she participated in advanced courses in the field of veterinary dentistry through the ESAVS in Luxembourg.
In 2018 she finally returned to Australia to live and work in Adelaide. Whilst she loved it there, she decided to move to Canada in 2019 to work in a well renowned feline clinic in Ottawa, where she also spent a lot of her time performing dental surgeries. Throughout these years she completed the Feline Medicine distance education course with the University of Sydney.
However, after several very cold winters, she realised that the pull of Oz was still there so with British husband and Canadian toddler in tow, she once again packed her bags in July 2025, to move to Perth and join the team at PCH. Of course her 2 cats, Toast & Gingey, have come along with the family!
Dr Klaartje has a special interest in feline dentistry as well as geriatric medicine and chronic pain management and anaesthesia. In order to expand her knowledge and stay up to date she is committed to participate in Continuous Education as much and often as time allows.