Pet shop fury!

Sorry to rant to you about this but you seem to know your rats and i want to get other peoples opinions.

Well if you remembered i bought some rats last friday from a new pets shop just across the street for us and when i went in to get them with my boyfriend we did the usual pick out the rats and she was away to put them in a box untill her boyfreind (i assume)said "Oh god whats the metter with her ear?!" and then the lasy went "Oh she's just been chewing it" so me and my boyfriend just thought oh well thats cool we'll sill take them so we did. They lady also said she had been sniffing cause she thinks one of the rats is allergic to aspen.

So we took them home and later on i was playing with them till i found that they were scratching each other and i mean major scratching i also realised that what was happening to one of the rats was now happening to the other as i looked at the ear and could see it was coming up in lump and up the tail too. I told my boyfrind that this isn't right and there was something up and i also said that it could be some sort of parasite.

The next day i went to the pet shop after work and told them that the problem is getting worse with the rats and that its not her chewing her ear as the same symptoms is happening to the other now as the pet shop owner did tell me to come back if i had problems. I told her of my concerns about the rats having parasites as i'm studying animal care and did parasitology and these are clearly the signs of them. She then went on to tell me they didnt have as the breeder she got them from had vet checks and that the other rest were fine.

So i went over to look at one of her rats at looked at its ear and i could see exactly that the ear was turning out the same as mine was so i went " Its got lumps on its ears too." at this point they came over and was like oh god your right. I thought this was weird as being current owners of a pet shop they should be checking the mammals/any sort of animal that comes in also keeping in mind that the state of my rats ear was in that this would take a good fews weeks for this to happen.

So i went home and on Monday i phoned for a vet for professional help. So i got an appointment and went. The vet then examined them and said "Ok i'm going to treat them for mites." i then said "Is it definitely mites?" she said i cant say i'm a 100% but i think its being caused by them" so i was in fury as you can imagine. I also got some antibiotics for them to clear it up, the totally amount costing me £37.50! I couldn't believe it.

I took my rats back home and then thought as i passed the pet shop that this is not acceptable! I shouldn't have to pay for this bill as it came from their shop and clearly got whatever they caught when they were in the shop. So i went in and could see she had customers so i waited in respect for them to leave as i wasn't there to cause trouble. After the customer went i told her that my rats had mites and were getting treated for it and she was like oh god thats not good. Her boyfriend was then like there's obviously something not right with them. I showed her the treatment and the antibiotics and the bill. i said "I don't mean to be rude but i had to pay a vet bill of £37.50 and well since i got them from here...." basically i was getting to the point of a refund or her paying me back for the rats that i paid for. She then gave me £30 back as thats how much paid for them. so we spoke and they were really nice to me or at least i thought they were. She then phoned me asking for proof of the treatment that the had rats i said i would get it.

So today i have been through **** as i was working and my boyfriend had to deal with it for the simple fact of me working. so i come back to this being said...My boyfriend phoned the vet and she spoke to the girl from the pet shop and told her what was happening and just because there's not a 100% assurance that it might be mites they want us to either give the rats back or give them the refund they gave us! I was angry! i said no we're not giving them back as even though you gave us a refund of £30 there's still the vet bills and if we do that then what have we got to show for it? We have lost out on £37! And that would mean we've treated the rats for them!

The vet said "But you should have not taken them like that" that being said we explained to her how the pet shop lady said it was just cause by her chewing her ear she then said "Ah i see. Then you didn't know any different. And anyway she shoudn't be selling any animal in that condition!" which i was explaining to me boyfriend that even if it isn't mites they should not be selling rats that are not 100% healthy! And the fact she shouldn't be giving out advise like saying it was caused by chewing the ear unless she was 100%! Thats just wrong! And we only bought them cause she said that! Later on she started saying how we bought them like that and we knew the condition but all we knew was she said that is was caused by being chewed! As this is what my boyfriend said. She later on goes on to say to him that i was being nice about the whole mite thing to her then changes her mind as says "I'm not happy with your girlfriend, you've been nice about it but she hasn't as she was saying in front of customers that the rats had mites and saying they weren't eating and they were sneezing." also she said "They weren't sneezing when we had them in the pet shop" but as i told you when we first purchased them she said she thinks they were sneezing cause they were allergic to aspen so she is completely lying!

She also said that she phoned all the people that had bought the other rats and there's nothing wrong with them which she is lying about too! As she doesn't even have numbers for them as she didn't take any numbers from me! I think in the end since the vet has said she cant be 100% sure about the mites the pet shop owners have just thought HA! we can get our refund back. But she forgets what she was saying before and she said there was clearly something wrong with them! She even offered me another rat as the one that was in the pet shop that i had spotted had the same problem she said she would get it treated and give it to me free.

Now she is harassing me to get them back. And i'm not doing it as i see me being ripped off! I was ripped off in the first place! She should have got her rats vet checked! As the breeder she gets her rats from said that some of his rats has ear "problems" and is being treated and cause of what has happened he needs to put all of his rats to the vet for check ups. She also had the cheek to say to my boyfriend that she would NEVER sell me any animals again! I was so pissed off! I mean wouldn't you? She then told me to bring them back as i got a refund and that they shouldn't be kept as pets and she wouldn't be selling them if she got them back and that she then went on to say they'd get the proper professional help! I was like they are getting proper professional help as we are currently getting them seen to at the vet and have the treatment! i was so offended! Like i would give them back to her when it happened there in the first place! And is she wasn't going to sell them then what was she going to do with them? I thought no you're going to put them back on sale and get your refund money back.

Anyway i'll stop there! So what do you think? Sorry to bother you but i'm so pissed off! I'm just going to ignore them from now on as there is nothing they can do about it now. We have the rats and thats that! My mum has left a message on their answering machine to let them know to leave me alone and they wont be getting the rats back and if they keep on bothering me it's classed as harassment and that if they carry on with it she will be personally going to deal with it herself meaning take it further.

I thought i was doing good to them as if someone went to the press about this them their business would be buggered. Sorry again! I don't mean to bore ya's with this!