Dog Bitten at Daycare

Location: Connecticut

So yesterday my partner picked up our dog from daycare and was informed she had been limping and had a gash on her leg. When she got home we looked closer and found a half-inch gash on her back left leg that was slowly bleeding. We took her to an urgent care vet and they had to perform surgery (Sedate, clip, suture, insert a drain tube, etc). The vet explained afterwards that it was most likely a bite and the daycare should review the cameras. They also questioned why the daycare didn't bring her in.

Today I called the daycare and spoke with their manager. The manager was apologetic and explained that they noticed her limping in the morning, then noticed her wound/bleeding in the afternoon. I asked to speak with the owner because I had to pay around 1500 dollars for surgery and was a bit miffed they had basically just ignored a limp and wound.

The owner(s) called me a bit later and I basically went back and forth with them as they overly downplayed the wound and stated their employees "only saw a little red dot", "fur covers stuff up", and "this happens, dogs play rough". They also stated they do not have cameras so they have no way of knowing what exactly happened. I was able to convince them to refund my daycare package, but they were very firm on not helping with the vet bill.

I'm assuming my only option now is writing a bad review, but a few people over in r/DogAdvice told me to come here and maybe ask about small claims court as a possibility. The waiver we signed for her to go to daycare waives their liability for any injury, but the fact that they just brushed off the limp and the wound itself seems very negligent and probably is the reason her wound required such extensive repair. What are your opinions?

Thanks for any responses!