I have a 4 and half Shih Tzu who had a back injury in 2024 where one of the differential diagnosis we received was possible IVDD. The vet put him on steroids, and gabapentin, he recovered fine and hasn’t had another flare up till the end of February… where he mistakenly mated with my neighbors dog. I didn’t purposely do this, it just happened…. A month after, he started shaking uncontrollably, since the last flare up was 2 years ago I didn’t immediately think IVDD…. I took him to the emergency vet, they gave him something for pain and put him on Rimadyl. A couple days later I followed up with his primary vet and they gave him a steroid shot, it helped for a couple days…. But he has his ups and downs. I’ve been at this for a whole month now, since April 3rd. My boy has been on and off Gabapentin, Rimadyl and Robaxin. Some days he’s great, other days he’s just depressed and in pain.
He isn’t limping or showing any signs of neurological deficits but from time to time he shakes… and he isn’t himself. We’ve been crate confining him for almost a week now…. Yes he’s improved but I also don’t understand why he’s been on meds for almost a month now and he isn’t fully back to being himself. They’ve done multiple xrays, no MRI as of yet. The separation between discs in the xray is not concerning to the vet but I know until I get an MRI I can’t tell for sure. I’m desperate at this point, please please give me positive advice. What am I doing wrong?