Parents not listening to vet advice

For context: This Sunday our dog (yorkie-mix) was attacked by a much larger dog while on a walk. My dog walked away with no visible punctures, but was flung roughly and began walking slowly and acting very timid and weary, so I took him with my parents to the vet right after.

They found he was unable to correct his hind legs with a reflex test they did (curled his hind paws while standing up and he didn’t self correct them, or would after long delay). Otherwise, he has normal gait, responds to pain stimuli in the hind legs, wags his tail rarely, but seems to be in pain due to his quietness. They told us this points to a spinal injury and to put him on crate rest for the next 3-4 weeks. They prescribed him gabapentin, a steroid, and a muscle relaxer.

Now here’s where the disagreements begin: The doctor was explicit in no steps at ALL. However, when it came to walking, he basically said to ‘take it easy and no long walks’, but to seriously reduce movement. “The more rest the better.”

For the past 2 days since the event I’ve been trying to read up on his possible condition and how to best treat him, and what I found was what’s called “strict crate rest” which, from my understanding, is 24/7 in a cage with only bathroom breaks outside. If they are allowed to walk around the house, even if they don’t climb anything, this could interrupt their healing process dramatically and result in paralysis.

My parents, however, can’t stand the idea of our dog in the cage. First day after putting him in the cage (the same evening of the attack), I come home to the cage open and our dog outside of the cage. We all argued, I showed them the sources I used which included a survey on recovery rates based on cage rest strictness, but they never listened. Yesterday he was found halfway up the stairwell before someone grabbed him and put him in the cage. Luckily, his gait is the same after that event, but that at least scared them into keeping him in the cage overnight and into this morning. Well, now he’s out of the cage again walking on our first floor. But my father says “he’s keeping an eye on them” and that “he’s an animal and needs to walk at least”. I tried and tried and tried several times to convince them but they won’t listen. It also doesn’t help my dog whines and scratches at the cage because, understandably, he doesn’t like the cage nor is used to it, so it convinces my parents to let him out.

He’s still in a lot of pain and granted, doesn’t walk far and very slowly or rarely at all when out of the cage.

I guess I’m just super worried that this will disrupt his recovery. I know that strict cage rest is probably best but, I suppose the vet did mention to “take it easy”? Now I am second guessing my own methods after today.

Should I continue to fight for his treatment of strict cage rest or would restricting him to the first floor of the house + no jumping be enough? Or could it cause him permanent damage?