Betta; Bacterial, Worms, Egg Bound, Dropsy?

[RCA]

Do you think I can save this girl?
Any advice welcome.
This is what she would typically look like:

 
So as you can she she is normally a little round, but she has got larger over the past 24 hours:

 
What you can see is she is larger on one side and it looks like there is some reddening on that side.  Also, the scales on the side which is worst, seem to be flaky and appear a little distended but I am not 100% sure it is dropsy, here is hoping not!
 
Can anyone help me in identifying what is wrong and what to treat her with in an attempt so save her.  Many thanks in advance for any hints, tips or ideas. 

 

[Wildbetta]

Oh man, the poor thing!!  Normally dropsy would start with pineconing on both sides (at least that is how I have always seen it) so I don't think it is dropsy.  At least not at the moment.  I am thinking she is either severely bloated or egg bound.  I would start by removing her to a separate place and fasting her to see if her bloating goes down any.  I would also keep it bare bottomed that way you can see if she poops and be able to see if it looks normal.  She might be eggbound but I personally have not come across one this...rough looking.  How is she acting?  Normal or being reclusive and lazy? Eating or avoiding food?  It is always better of course if she is acting good but looking a little rough VS looking rough and acting rough.  

 

[RCA]

Thanks Wildbetta, it is indeed sad to see her this way.
She is isolated at present with no substrate in the container.

How is she acting?  Normal or being reclusive and lazy? Eating or avoiding food?

She was hiding in the tank and whenever she did appear one of the other fish would chase her away.  I would say she is the lowest in the pecking order of the girls and therefore is often allusive.
 
She came up at feeding time, but to be honest I scooped her up and did not allow her to feed, as I believe that fasting would assist in any case.
 
I am busy this morning but will go up to the LFS and hope the guy who knows about illnesses is in and can help.  It is the reddening on one side and the flaky looking scales that are of major concern, alongside her size!  This would lead me to believe it is bacterial, but I am not 100% sure.
 
If you look closely at the first picture (top left), it almost looks like she has a small prolapse?
 
I have heard/been advised in the past, that if a female gets large with eggs, you can put her in a container in a male's tank so that it can induce her to release the eggs?  Have you ever heard of this or done such an action?  I know you can also put them with the male for him to wrap her, but I really would not want to do this as it is so bad it almost looks like she will explode!

 

[RCA]

Sadly this morning she had become redder and it looked a bit like an ulcer.
 
I went to the LFS as mentioned above and he felt it was a difficult one, and recommended trying the wormer, but the chances were I would loose her.  I bought another small heater to set up a quarantine tank for her, but when I came home she had passed away and did not look good
 
I will not post the pictures, however if anyone wants to see them to try and help decide what happened to her, then please state and I will PM them.
 

 Betta Girl.  She was a little sweetie, very unassuming.

 

[Shelster]

Sorry RCA a tumour maybe? at least she is no longer suffering.

 

[VickyChaiTea]

I'm sorry.
 
You were right about letting a male wrap around her. If you do that with an eggbound female it can literally make her burst. The problem is not being able to pass eggs, squeezing them would only make things worse.
 
It does not look like egg binding, that usually takes place over time. It also does not look like kidney failure, which is one of the more common causes of dropsy. Technically she was dropsical because she had fluid retention in her abdomen. That's the definition of dropsy. It's a symptom, not a disease itself. It can be caused by literally anything.
 
In this case, given the pace of the infection and the redness, I am going to say some kind of bacterial infection. What kind of bacteria and what they attacked I am not certain of, only a necropsy would tell. Really only a vet trip could have properly diagnosed her, and even then it was pretty bad. I'm so sorry.

 

[RCA]

Thanks for your responses, as you say she is now free from any pain.  I was also thinking bacterial of some sort, or her eggs went bad?  She was black where she had opened up around the reddening area, if that gives anyone any clues?
 
I have turned the UV light on in the tank to hopefully kill anything that maybe lurking and will do a WC today as well.

 

[CoryLover95]

Oh I'm so sorry.  

 .  Poor thing, but you did all you could for her.  Best of luck with your other bettas.

 

[RCA]

the girls can be a lot more challenging to keep than the boys, sadly it is part of the challenge of keeping them.

 

[CoryLover95]

I know...I've only kept about 5 bettas, but when one of them [boy] got dropsy and I was unable to help him I felt terrible.

 

[HayzH]

i lost one of my girls to dropsy/pineconing. But she never got that big
one of my current girls has got really fat, with the white anal protrusion. I just hope she doesnt go the same way.
On inspecting my fore said girlie...she had some pus come out of her tummy, so im guessing infection.
 
poor thing xxx  

 

[CoryLover95]

Oh Hayz I'm so sorry hopefully you can get this all cleared up.

 

[gyro]

from the pictures that female beta has a skin fungus that causes swelling and scales to stand outward. i dont remember the fungus name. the only cure ive found that works for sure with about 40% chance to cure if caught soon enough, is the seclude the fish in a treatment tank and treat with 4 teaspoons of non-iodized sea salt per half gallon of water. normal salt mixture practice in most freshwater tanks is 1 teaspoon per gallon. once a month after filter or water change. since the fungus seams to be bacterial it can spread through contact with other fish. very common in guppies and goldfish. but can affect most freshwater species. not normally found in wild outside fish. ??? that one still puzzles me.