Nicki is originally from Edinburgh and graduated from The University of Edinburgh in 1988. After 11 years in general practice, she returned to her home town to run the small animal practice at The University of Edinburgh. Subsequently Nicki became the Feline Advisory Bureau (now International Cat Care) Resident in Feline Medicine and gained her Royal College Diploma in Feline Medicine in 2008 followed by the European College Diploma in Internal Medicine in 2009. Having progressed to Senior Lecturer and Head of the Feline Clinic, Nicki left The University of Edinburgh in 2015 to focus on clinical work. Nicki was awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2020.

She is one of only two vets in Scotland to be recognised as a Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Specialist in Feline Medicine and has written several journal articles and book chapters in the field of Feline Medicine, as well as having lectured widely in this area in the Uk and abroad. Nicki shares her house with a slightly senile geriatric British Shorthair called Grace.