Betta with swelling

[Harleys Mom]

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[Harleys Mom]

http://flickr.com/gp/91563036@N02/n4A2yJ

Xia 12-26-12

[Harleys Mom]

Photos of Xia 12-26-12. Hope this helps!

http://flickr.com/gp/91563036@N02/ELfQW3

http://flickr.com/gp/91563036@N02/n4A2yJ

[callistra]

Well, good news is I don't see raised scales, do you? So it's not dropsy. It also seems to be totally GI based. Bad news is she does look swollen to me.

Recommendations still all stand. Good luck!

so her poo is brown/pellet colored and not ballish, stringy, white, clear or segmented?

[Harleys Mom]

I fasted her today. Poop is brown/pellet color. She seamed a bit better today. I wasnt sure how much Epsom Salt to give her so I went with 1tsp per gal. I found the Omega betta food today! I'm a bit concerned about the preservative ethoxyquin thats in it, especially after reading the review on Amazon. Yikes! I'll keep looking for the other food. And I can add tap water slowly, over time.

[callistra]

No internal infection then. 1 tsp is a good start. If she doesn't seem to be getting better or takes a downward spiral increase it. You can get up to 3 tsp per gallon so long as you add slowly.

Good luck, let us know how she does.

[Harleys Mom]

Since I first posted on Dec. 26, I Stop adding the Aqua. salt and started adding Epsom Salt (2 tesp in 2 gals). Its helped with the swelling and she was doing better.... until a two days ago when she started to get puffy again, then today she is more puffy and seams to be starting to pine-cone, slight raising of scales. : (

She has been eating good till this AM when I gave her her 3 pellets and she ate them but one came back out. She seams to be pooping normal. She is swimming less, hovering around the top, very slight buoyancy issues (probably due to her increased puffiness?) and her breathing is more rapid.

So Im wondering if I should try a Epsom Salt "Bath" I've heard about? (If so I need directions on that.) Or if its probably too late and I just need to keep her comfortable till her time comes. <sigh>

If she doesnt make it I still want to thank you guys for your advice. She did seam better for the weeks since you advised me so Im thankful for that.

Its hard to face that my adding the salt could have caused this. But then again she is over 3 yrs old and it may just be old age. She probably had major stress in her first year when I had to take her with me out of town for 5 weeks. The place was at 6,500' altitude so Im sure she felt it going and coming home. She's had a good life, my little traveler, and been very loved. : ) Her name, Xia Tian means red clouds, tranquil ...like a sunset. : )

[callistra]

I'm sorry she has had a relapse :( It is very possible she is aging out and this is just basic organ failure and not an actual infection. In my experience, with dropsy there has always been a change in poop so if it's natural aging process it would stand to reason the poop would be normal.

It's a tough call because if she is aging out you don't want to cause undue stress, on the other hand you want to give her a fighting chance.. As a last ditch effort you could try Kanaplex or Maracyn Plus.

I know OFL likes IAL or oak leaves.. you could pm her.

[Harleys Mom]

Xia got so much more puffy yesterday. Its full body and the scales are raised but you have to look closely to see it so I dont think its as bad as it could be...yet. She did end up eating all her food yesterday but only one pellet so far today. She is still pooping but its a lot of tiny pieces not the longer ones. She is at the top of the tank 98% of the time but she moves from time to time to different corners and last I looked had kinda wedged her self against the heater and side of the tank verticaly with her little mouth almost out of the water.

I realized yesterday that I had read the directions wrong on the epsom salts. I was adding only 1tsp per gal and reading back over your instructions and OFL I see you guys said I could go up to 2 tsp per gal. twice as much. Tonight I do her 100% water change so Im wondering if I should increase it slowly to 2 tsp per gal or just leave it as is since her condition is so much worse? I want her to be comfortable but I dont want to prolong the suffering either. Hard to know what direction to take.

[callistra]

It won't hurt to increase her epsoms.

Small segmented bits of poop can be caused by internal parasites.. Treatment for that would be medicated feed for 3-4 weeks. Usually there is some discoloration with it though.