Hilde de Rooster graduated as a veterinarian from Ghent University in 1993. She obtained an additional Master's degree in orthopedics in Scotland. She then worked for eight years in a veterinary clinic for small pets. At the same time, she worked on a PhD on cruciate ligament rupture. Since 2003, she has been working as a soft tissue surgeon at Ghent University and became a Diplomate in 2008. In addition to theoretical and practical teaching, she supervises various research and PhD projects, focusing on wound healing and antibiotic use, extrahepatic portosystemic shunts, and oncology.