Sparky is an incredibly appealing dog... but he has really had a tough week after hurting himself while out for a walk.

He is a two-year-old Springer Spaniel and he has spent the last week at the Donaldson’s Vets Maple Street Hospital.

Being a springer spaniel, Sparky is absolutely brimming with energy. When he is out for a walk with his owners he never stops so when he suddenly hobbled back to his owners during a walk last Tuesday it was pretty obvious that something was wrong.

He was rushed down to the Donaldson’s Vets surgery at Birchencliffe where our vet Cordelia Edwards examined and X-rayed him.

Sparky the two-year-old springer spaniel's pre op x-ray on the first elbow

The X-rays revealed that he had suffered a fracture at the bottom of his humerus resulting in total collapse of his elbow joint. With the fracture extending right through the joint surface this fracture needed to be reconstructed perfectly if the joint was to be able to function normally again so Sparky was transferred to the Maple Street hospital where we often do the more complex orthopaedic procedures.

After discussion with the owners, Cordelia and I transferred Sparky into our high sterility theatre for emergency surgery on Tuesday night.

The fracture was carefully reconstructed using a screw, a pin and a plate that was contoured to the shape of the bone. After a late night in the operating theatre, Sparky was transferred back to X-ray and the post-operative X-rays showed a very pleasing position of the implants.

Sparky the two-year-old springer spaniel's fractured elbow

Despite this massive surgery by the next morning Sparky was making great progress and yet he worried me. I was suspicious that he had a problem brewing in his other elbow. X-rays showed nothing but I was concerned that he had the beginnings of a fissure crack between the condyles of the elbow on his other leg. My concern was that if there was a fissure already at that elbow it was a ticking time bomb and there was a risk that elbow would also fracture.

X-rays can have limitations when it comes to searching for these tiny fissures but, fortunately, our visiting CT scanner was scheduled for the following day.

Sparky was CT scanned on Thursday last week and sure enough, the scan revealed a wide fissure crack that was just waiting to develop into a full fracture.

For the second time in a week, I had to phone poor Sparky’s owners with bad news.

Without further surgery, it was only a matter of time until disaster struck with his second elbow. Sparky needed further surgery.

Sparky the two-year-old springer spaniel's post op x-ray on the second elbow

On Monday, Sparky was back in theatre and had a screw inserted in his humerus to stabilise and support his condyles.

Despite his ordeal, Sparky remained cheerful.

With his bright eyes and waggy tail, he has won the heart of all the staff at Maple Street (myself included) and I am delighted to say that, 7 days after being rushed in to us Sparky has gone home to start his convalescence.