*scream*

Poor dear little Larry Lobster the betta is still hanging on.
He's a PetSmart rescue that's hung on quite frankly about 14 days longer than I ever expected. Today's day #16 - he's not eaten anything since I brought him home, I stopped trying to feed him a few days ago.

His water has been kept sparklingly clean - he was medicated with maracyn 2 for 10 days, then 2 days ago I switched to tetracycline. His water also had colloidal and an IAL leaf in it at all times.

Today I went to check on him and he's totally pineconing everywhere.
However - his belly is not bloated whatsoever. He's not big and puffy at all, anywhere.
After not having eaten for 16 days, I would have expected him to look emaciated - he does not at all. Which makes me somewhat wonder if he really really is skinny but he's dying of dropsy and his belly being that bloated just makes him look normal size.
Is that possible, does anyone suppose?

I plugged in my camera a bit ago - i'll try to get a picture of it when it's charged up, so you can all take a look and see what you think.

So much for being able to say I've never had to watch a betta suffer and die from dropsy.
What an evil horrible miserable disease.
16 days of hell.
They weren't that enjoyable for me watching him, I can only imagine how completely horrible life is for him.

:banghead:

atleast you tried on helping him. indeed dropsy is REALLY nasty ,its horrible i have gone through it w/ 2 bettas and a guppy(as you know) lightning wasnt bloated so bloating isnt allways a symptom

Just curious did you ever give a strong salt bath a try before going to such powerful medications. <not wanting to assume here.>

Edit: eeep that was a bit rude of me, I'm sorry for your loss as well.

Guess I'd better :asskiss:

edited to add. Sorry about your loss. You did everything and then some. As always. RIP Larry.

So sorry BettaMomma.... I know what you are going through.... and what your dear betta is going through. You did and are doing everything you can.... but he was very sick before you got him. If anything you prolonged his life a bit.... made him a bit more comfortable.... and gave him a real home.

The scales stick out like that when there is bloating. It may not look like it to you.... but the poor thing is bloated.

Glaive.... dropsy trying to internal infection... and then it nails the kidneys. Salt is fine for trying to reduce the bloating a little bit..... but..... salt is hard on the kidneys.

Recovery from dropsy is so very minimal.... that most people don't even try. If you don't catch it at the very beginning.... you aren't going to be able to stop it. Some present symptoms more clearly than others...

It seems that what fishkeepers really need is a company that make meds that work. It really seems like there are more and more resistant diseases.

I'm very sorry BettaMomma...you've done everything you could possibly think of. At least it seems like that to me...but I guess...when I had my troubles w/ Lolita, I always thought there had to be something I was missing, etc. even after she devloped dropsy and then passed. I'm sure Larry knows how hard you've tried...and are still trying, etc. I'm very sorry that it came down like this...

Well he finally gave up last night. He's gone. I never thought I'd be happy to find a betta that had died, but in this case I was somewhat, just because I knew he was done suffering. It was still really sad. :(

Naah, I didn't try a salt bath. Quite honestly, I personally think a salt bath should really be reserved only for horrible cases of parasite infestation, IF high temps and parasite meds don't work, or horribly severe cases of finrot where the body needs a kickstart on its way to rehealing, after the cause of the finrot has been corrected. Otherwise I think they're just too harsh and can be way too much for a frail ailing betta. Epsom salt, on the other hand, I would consider maybe in the case of severe bloating.

I'm sorry Larry passed BettaMomma, but I understand too that it was probably for the best. At least now he doesn't have to suffer anymore. I know in his heart that he knew you were trying your damndest to make him feel better, and I'm sure he appreciated the nice home you gave him :)

:bye: :rip: - Larry

I'm so sorry you lost him. I know you did everything you could for him.

I'm not a big fan of salt baths either. I've only given one, to Jericho, and he died so soon after that I've often wondered if that stressed him out so bad that it finished him off where he was weak anyway.

I do know what you mean about almost being relieved when he passed. I was for my little gourami. I'd been medicating for weeks and he just looked so pitiful, I knew he was miserable. Sometimes, I guess it's for the best.