Well, it looks like it was Scooter's malformed stomach that took him.
His last (fourth) stomach surgery was only 4 and 1/2 months ago and at
that point it was already taking him over 10 hours to empty his stomach,
motility was that bad.  On necropsy he was again full of fur-balls (after
the one he'd passed intestinally), he was fully blocked, and his stomach
was full of blood and terribly distended.  Joe thinks that he may have
lost motility completely or at least it worsened even more.  He had what
may be an insulinoma, too, but he had not shown any insulinoma symptoms
till that night.  Joe (our vet, Joe Martins of the Bellemead A.H. in
NJ) said it really was time, that he didn't think that a fifth stomach
surgery, esp.  this close to the last, would have given him much, if any,
time.  That malformation just finally caught up with him.
 
Scooter was our little guy who came here with deformities and had to go
through 6 surgeries due to them.  He's one of the little ones whose
situation caused us to sew covers over fake sheep's fleece and over fake
fur on the bedding.
 
Joe went the extra mile; he came here after midnight in a storm which
made the roads slick, a drive which takes about an hour in good weather,
arranging for the other vet to cover in the meantime, since he was on
call at the hospital, and we set up emergency care on the dining room
table, with IV hanging from the candleabra, and us helping place the IV
catheter (which was hard, given Tootie's low blood pressure but with a
cut-down it worked on the first try), and so on.  We brought out a
folding cage and left the top open for his IV and the door (large) toward
us so the set-up was perfect for him, at least.  It's just that his body
didn't have a chance any longer.  At the end he just wanted to be held
and that is how he passed, in my arms.
 
I wanted to wait before I said what happened because we needed to know
what he looked like at necropsy, but both of the times Joe tried to tell
us he was interrupted by emergency surgeries, so we learned today, which
is only right.  The information for us could wait, but the animals in
need could not.  Pathology is being done, of course.  Maybe both Scooter
and Sevie have things to teach which will help other ferrets, Scooter
with his malformation, and Sevie, having lasted 7 good months with her
Level 3 A/V Heart Node Block.
[Posted in FML issue 4045]