Crooked...

This week was revealing in surprising news concerning Happy...

In St Martin we have "crooked visitors" (i.e. my blog October 15th...), we have "crooked restaurantor" (i.e. "La Fregatte" in Oyster pond : http://www.englishversion.tabba-khady.net/custom7.html ) and we have "crooked veterinarians" :

i.e. Dr Marianne FOSSAT-FLAWINNE, 203 Rue de Hollande - Marigot - St Martin.

Dr Marianne FOSSAT-FLAWINNE is (WAS) our vet since a while and she had built trust and confidence with us, specially since our average monthly bill with her was about few hundred dollars.

When we found Happy after four and half month of wander, we brought him to her for a full check up. As you certainly read in my previous blogs regarding this situation, she diagnosed happy with a "very bad case of Heart worms", so bad that it was an emergency that he recover his weight so she could treat him as soon as possible for 600 Euros ( US$900...) which we found a bit over priced for this type of treatment as we already paid a bit less for another dog she treated.

During two and half month we stressed about him, not recovering weight as fast as he should, and worrying if he was going to die. Then last week we inquired with another vet. on the Dutch side, Dr Garry Swanston about his rate for a heart worms treatment and his answer was: $350...

So without any hesitation, since Happy seemed to be strong enough to handle the treatment we took appointment with Dr Swanston for Monday, and I dropped Happy at his clinic on early morning as he requested, explaining him that Happy had been diagnosed with a very bad case of heart worms by another vet, but being almost three time more expensive than him we were giving him the business instead .

By the beginning of the afternoon, I received a call from his assistant, and she obviously seemed to be awkward on the phone :

Her : I am calling you about Happy...

Me : Yes what happen?...

Her: Well it is kinda embarrassing...

Me: Yes?...What is embarrassing?

Her : I have some surprising news about Happy... We run a routine test before proceeding the treatment and .... Happy doesn't have heart worms...

Me : What?... are you sure of what you are saying?

Her : Yes we are sure... I know it is embarrassing, but we did two different test from two different brand and all came out negative.. There is no possible mistake : Happy is healthy and doesn't have heart worms... However, when I said healthy, it is all relative.... He has worms in his system which is why he has hard time to gain back some weight, but not heart worms... Just need a "dewormer".

Embarrassing? Yes !... But not for Dr Swanston and his team...

Here below result of the negative test, professional will appreciate :

WOW !... Thank you Dr Swanston about your honesty ! You knew we were convinced about Happy being infected, so you could have very easily overlook the results, do not proceed with the treatment to do not put the dog in danger, but still billing us and making believe you proceed...since we beleived Happy was seek. You are a very honest and genuine Veterinarian, and you action is all admirable. You definitely gained our trust on this one and will have all our family in your portfolio.

As for you Dr Marianne Fossat-Flawinne you are crooked and you are a swindler!!!..

When I confronted you about it the next day, I could see and hear how embarrassed and uncomfortable you were to have been caught. You were asking us, unscrupulously, to pay you 600 Euros for a treatment you were not going to do since you knew your diagnosis was a fake one... Greed !... You tried to bluff me by giving me some even more crooked explanations to justify your diagnosis : "The reading of those tests can be very confusing, sometime as they fade very quickly"... No Dr Fossat, the reading is not confusing, and you even do not need to be a vet to know how to read them... Yes they fade but after several hours only (and William remember that you showed him a blank test result telling him it was positive but already faded..) To know how to read the result you just have to go on the Internet, Google "snap test result reading" and you will find out how to read them : one blue point on the top means that the blood test is positive (in fact the the test wasn't defective), one more blue point on the right means that the blood is tested positive with heart worms, if the blue point on the right doesn't appear then the dog is negative on heart worms... Where this second blue point appears on happy test ? Nowhere... You were just after the money...

And now I am thinking.... Last May we brought you Caramel and Picolla for a check up... You diagnosed Picolla negative on heart worms but to our HUGE surprised Caramel was positive. They lived their whole life together, in the exact same environment since seven years, both being protected, and your answer to us was : It doesn't matter, Caramel certainly have the heart worms since before you found him when he was a puppy... He doesn't have many, anyway, maybe one or two adult worms in his system, no more!

(We found him when he was two month old...)

So we paid you for the treatment which you did or didn't, because now I have some very serious doubt about this diagnostic, and we went through a month and half of stress and fear to loose Caramel as he is a very hyper dog which is not what a dog under heart worm treatment is suppose to be... Neither less you inconvenienced Caramel (and us...) infringing his freedom as you told us to keep him on the leash every single time we took him out, with no beach and no playing for at least a month!...

Disgusting...

Marianne Fossat-Flawinne you are crooked and I stripped you of your "Dr" tittle..... You will never see us again, and I hope that S.N.O.B. and other associations and foundations do not use your services again.

You are a Vulture taking advantage of people...