PORTLAND -- It’s hard to resist the doggies in the window when walking into a Scamps store, but Lauren Pulicella, 17, regrets the day she ever walked in the door.

“If I could go back, I would never have walked in that place,” she said.

Pulicella ended up buying a cocker spaniel puppy she named “Emma” for $600 from a Scamps store in August. She even took it to one of the veterinarians listed on a Scamps flier for a free examination.

“The first vet at Sorrentos said it was the worst ear mites he had ever seen. In fact, he took a sample for a class he was teaching,” she said.

Ear mites are crab-like parasites that live in a dog’s ear canal. If not treated, they can rupture a dog’s eardrum. A veterinarian tells News Channel 8 that ear mites are common in puppy stores.

The diagnosis made another turn.

“The vet also told me she (Emma) had a luxating patella, where the joint in her knees slides in and out when she moves around.”

A luxating patella is dislocated kneecaps and according to Lauren’s Vet, she (Emma) wouldn’t be able to walk in the future, if she didn’t have surgery.

Lauren was furious so she went back to Scamps.

“I went immediately, I was in tears and I said, what are you going to do? My puppy’s sick,” she said.

She was told by a vet that surgery to correct the problem was $1500 to $2000 a knee. Lauren claims Scamps elected not to do the surgery. Now Lauren is filing a small claims complaint against the pet store company to cover the dog’s surgery.

News Channel 8 uncovered 5 animals purchased from Scamps within the past four years that have health problems. According to vet records, two dogs were diagnosed with a luxating patella (dislocated kneecaps) , 3 dogs were diagnosed with kennel cough, 2 dogs were diagnosed with parasite-related infections, 1 dog was diagnosed with roundwords, 1 dog was diagnosed with a hernia, and 1 dog was diagnosed with a heart murmur.

Shahna Sanders bought a shitz poo named “Patrick” to allow her kids to get over the death of the longtime family pet. She took the dog to the Banfield Pet Hospital, at 82nd Avenue & Gresham, to get him checked out. “They checked him out and said he was fine.”

But that wasn’t the case, when she took “Patrick” to the family’s own veterinarian, Dr. Amy Pittman.

“I heard a raging heart murmur. It was so loud I could feel it just by holding the dog," she said.

Her partner concurred with the diagnosis, that the dog needed to see a cardiologist immediately.

“I hate giving that kind of news,” said Dr. Pittman. If not treated, the condition can be deadly because “it could slowly lead to heart failure."

Shahna didn’t want the put the kids through anymore heartbreak so she made the agonizing decision to take the dog back to Scamps.

“They (the kids) cried so hard I had to email their teachers and tell them they weren’t able to make it into school,” she recalled.

News Channel 8 tried to contact Scamps five different times. We also sent a certified letter to alert the company about our story and initiate a response, but we never heard back from them.