8 year old Shih-tzu Maltese diagnosed with a bulging disc 🙁

Hi, thank you for making all of the videos on youtube. I have found them very helpful with my little guy Benson…it’s nice to see a vet that goes the extra mile for their patients. Our vet clinic is also caring and affordable as well, which is hard to find these days.

Benson is a miracle dog. He has already survived a grade 2 mast cell inguinal tumor so Cornell and our local vet love him and call him their miracle dog (this was 2.5 years ago)

Now for his most recent issue which is why I’m writing; For a week, he was dragging his front left paw. We took him to our vet (on Monday, March 19th) and she diagnosed him with arthritis….things got worse throughout the week to the point where he would knuckle his front left paw. Our vet had only told us to limit his activity and no jumping so we didn’t restrict him to a crate. By Sunday morning (March 25th) (and he was on 5mg of prednisone since Monday) his back left paw was now knuckling and he was getting worse to the point where he could barely stand up.
We took him back to the vet and they did x-rays and found a bulging disc right around his shoulder blades. He has been on 10mg of prednisone, Methocarbamol, gabapentin and in a crate 24/7 ever since Sunday the 25th. Luckily, he is really only affected on his left side of his body.

We are seeing a little bit of improvement at times and at other times, he is still just as bad as he was on Sunday.

He has never lost the ability to pee or defecate (thankfully) annnnd Benny loves to eat (or drink) so that will never be an issue haha…

However what worries me is the fact that he is ALWAYS as stiff as a board in the morning when we get up or when he gets stressed/excited. It’s as if he re-injures himself because he can’t walk and can barely stand. It takes him at least an hour to recover, stop panting and then relax again until it seems like he is not in pain anymore….

Is there anything we can do to prevent the “morning/excited episodes” or is it all just part of the process? I thought the muscle relaxer would help but it isn’t. I have even gone so far as to put signs on our front door asking visitors to not knock or ring the doorbell.

Last question-do you have an opinion about a dog chiropractor?

Any advice you could give, we would appreciate! We love our little guy-he has such a personality and adds so much fun to our lives.

Thanks so much,
Megan and Missy