DROPSY!!

[Crissyloach]

Unfortunately, one of my female HMPK bettas has dropsy- I only noticed it this now, and I check them a lot. She is bloated, and her scales are just starting to stand out. She has her own 5 gallon heated tank, and the others were taken out a while ago. All others are fine. I have been reading that at this stage it is very hard to cure. The water is clean- lots of regular water changes. I am going to do another water change now. I have NEVER dealt with dropsy. I have no idea what to do right now! I am working on the water tests.

[Diana]

Unfortunately Dropsy is a symptom, not a diagnosis. Something is causing the fish to have problems getting rid of the excess fluid in her system.
There are 2 phases to the treatment:

Treat the symptom. Help her to get rid of the fluid. Epsom salt in the water can help.

Treat the original disease that is causing the problem. Here is the tricky part. Cannot tell what the underlying problem is.
Might be fish that got in a fight. Some fish ram into each other hard enough to do internal injuries.
Might be bacterial. More fish diseases are Gram negative, so that might be a start.
Viruses can also cause problems like dropsy.

The only one of those 3 you might medicate for is a bacterial infection.

Unfortunately by the time the symptoms show up, the swelling and scales standing out, the internal damage might not be able to be healed, even if you do kill the bacteria (if that is even what triggered this)

[Crissyloach]

Yes- That is what I have heard. I posted this on another forum too, and nobody has had too much luck saving their betta after the dropsy was noticed.