Cleo - Swollen Cheek

[sammiesam]

Hey guys,
Again as usually, I've been running around busy with work and then I just got back from Vegas ( YAAAYYY lol it was fun). I'm gunna poke around posts today and see what I can do to be more active lol.

Anyways, before I left for my trip I noticed one of my Betta's - Cleo - had a swollen cheek as I like to call it.
It is right behind his eye a bit, like over the gil plate/cheek area and its just swollen. I couldn't see anything on it, no wounds nothing, just swelling. which I thought was really weird. So I gave him a couple baths before I left of some epsom salt, meth blue to try and bring it down. I was hoping he just knocked his face on something and gave himself an owie.

But I came back from vacation and it's still the same. Actually, it literally is exactly the same, no better, no worse.
Now I had an old betta (fred) who had that growth in the same area when he got old, but you could see that his was a tumor. This one looks like its under the flesh. Up until today it just looked swollen, but this morning the swelling has seemed to come down a tiny tiny bit, but when I got in close with my pen light to look again, I can see one spot in the swelling that larger and raised more, almost like a deep skin pimple. This all looks fairly deep btw, nothing sitting on the skin etc.

I'm not really sure what to make of this. I did try to get pics, my camera hates me. I was gunna borrow my sisters underwater camera, but it's dead and she can't find the charger. So I dunno, can't help you in that department. But if you guys have any other ideas. I am just gunna keep up with the baths for now until I can figure out exactly what I should do.

Thanks guys Maybe I'll post some Vegas pics later for you

[Carl]

First, glad you had fun in Vegas (I will be stopping there this weekend during a camping trip)! ;D

This is a difficult problem IMO.

You might try adding meds (at double dose) to the baths, Metronidazole is my first thought for this)

As well maybe a direct paint of Methylene Blue or even a strong oxidizer such as Potassium Permanganate (diluted 50%).

Carl

[sammiesam]

oh that was a good call on my behalf, i did add metronidazole to the bath today so I guess I'm on the right track.
Thanks carl

[goldenpuon]

I have had this problem with my own bettas, sometimes in which part of their face was swollen and got infected by some kind of white-fungus-like stuff. I forgot what I used to treat this every time but I used wondershells and Furan 2 on somke occasions. However, your case might be different, especially since you didn't notice any fungus-like stuff infecting it. So i would go with what Carl recommends on this one.

Good luck!

[sammiesam]

hmm yeah I dont see anything on it or around it, just swelling, it looks deep. But I think it looks a little less swollen today so i think the baths of meth, salt and metro. are doing something Thanks guys

[sammiesam]

just to update you guys, it seems like his swelling his consistently coming down slowly. Very slow process but daily baths seem to be doing the trick, he eats better again and he seems to be regaining some function of that swollen gill

[goldenpuon]

That is actually exactly the same thing that happened to my bettas as they aged a lot. I know I mentioned swelling and an infection but sometimes there was no infection- just swelling.

But in most cases, it slowly went away with treatment. I don't know how many times this happened because I had 30 bettas at one time and several of them got this, sometimes more than once. I know I treated them when this happened, but for some, I may have not treated them and it disappeared on its own. Don't quote me on that, my memory is fuzzy when remembering about every fish.

[Suzie Q (Lori)]

Glad he is getting better