Worming Their Way To A New Animal

(I have two pet rabbits, neither particularly small. They’ve recently had trouble maintaining their weight but there’s no signs of illness and they’re eating well, so my guess is the newer rabbit brought worms with her and passed them to my buck. I pick up some worming medicine from the pet store which needs to be fed to them for a course of a few days, but they only have one pack; I return on their delivery day for more.)

Me: *to store manager* “Hi, I need some medicine from the cabinet.”

Manager: “Sure.” *he opens it* “What do you need?”

Me: “Three packs of [medicine], please.”

Manager: “What do you need it for?”

(I explain about the likelihood of worms and the fact that they’d only had one pack last time.)

Manager: “Oh, so you only need one pack, then.”

Me: “What? No, I need three more.”

Manager: “Once you’ve given them the tablets it covers them for a year.”

Me: “Uh, it’s not tablets. And it’s a course; if you look on the side of the box, it tells you how much you need to give the rabbit. One pack would be enough for a rabbit under 2.5kg; mine are 3kg and 6kg, so I need more.”

Manager: “That’s not right. It’s one tablet, and they’re fine for a year.”

Me: “But… no, that’s not what it says on the box at all. If you’d just look-”

Manager: “That’s how it is for dogs.”

Me: “I… what? I’m not trying to deworm a dog.”

Manager: “It works for dogs!”

Me: “I have RABBITS. Just- just look at the box!”

(He finally glanced at it, then grumpily gave me the medicine I wanted, all the while muttering about how it’s only once a year, how it is for dogs, etc. The manager of a pet store that actually sells rabbits and animal medicines could not comprehend that dogs and rabbits could possibly need different medical care. For the record, after the course of medicines their weight stabilised nicely!)