I'm not commenting on anything but the Paypal issue...
If you paid through a charge card you can do a chargeback, regardless of how paypal feels. I have said many times that paypal does this(doesn't refund due to item not as described off of ebay and someday people will believe me
I know because I had the
exact same thing happen.
Also if you paid through your bank account, check with your bank to see if you can do a charge back. It'll be a lot of work and probably get a letter from the vet to state your case but worth it in the long run. If you paid with funds already in your paypal account, they are gone and can NOT be recovered.