Hey, we're doing great!
About crate rest, I like to play it safe. We caught Layla's latest one early too, but she has been in the care of neurologists and even the surgeons suggested 8 weeks for us. She felt better after a couple of days, but remember that disks take more time to heal than bones. I think that even though Layla is feeling fine, there's more healing that needs to take place until she's 100%. I would tend to go with Dodgerslist just because they take their information from what has worked for thousands and thousands of dogs, instead of some vets who only see a few dogs like this in their career.
Today is just two weeks for Layla! 6 more weeks to go. She surprisingly has not lost much muscle mass in her back legs yet, and on the weekend she was standing for us when we told her to lay down lol! It was reflexive and she didn't know she was doing it but she stood really well and held it for a long time! We feed Layla in her wire crate too. We leave water in there all the time, but take out her food bowl when she's done eating so she has more room to lay down.
I know Layla will never run like she used to, but she can get going just as fast in her cart
We will need to retrain her to play with her toys, because now that she has had an episode in her neck we need to stop her from shaking and "killing" her toys and injuring herself further.