Constipated betta female

Question
Hello!  I've been keeping betta females for several years now, but I've never run into such a stubborn case of constipation!  I have a relatively small blue female that I've only had for about 3 weeks.  I adopted her from a pet store that woefully overfeeds their bettas.  I brought her home and noticed she was a little large, but swam normally and was active.  I kept her in betta revive for the first three days just because she was already in some in her little pet store cup and her water was so dirty before I brought her home.  She seemed to be doing fine, but then I noticed she wasn't pooping after about a week.  I stopped feeding her that night, but the next day she began struggling to stay upright (tendency being to roll on her side).  I fasted her for 3 days and then gave her a little bite of pea, then fasted her for another three, more pea.  Usually this works for my girls,  but I didn't notice any change.  I tried an Epsom salt soak and she seemed to thin out! I never noticed a poop, but she was wiggling all around her tank and she stopped swimming on her side and began begging for food in earnest (which I tearfully denied). I have given her three soaks over two days now and haven't noticed a poop yet.  I have also put her back in the betta revive while she's outside of the soak as I read that sometimes bacterial infections can be the cause of bloat and the bloat can constipate them?  Is a bacterial infection the likely cause of my problems?  She seems seriously uncomfortable when she's in her cup and improves every time I soak her, but still I can't get her to poop!  I don't want the poor thing to die. Is there something else I can do?  I've been using a ratio of 1 Tbs/ gal for the soak and leaving her in for about an hour.  She's at room temp right now which is about 74 and I've given her a short length of fake plant to rest on/under so she isn't constantly struggling.  She rests on this most of the day except in the soak, when she abandons it to move around.  Am I doing anything wrong?  Is there another method that I haven't heard of for curing constipation?

Thanks so much in advance!

Answer
April,
When you feed the pea, you should give the female at least half of the pea, or the whole thing. 1 tablespoon per gallon is a little bit too much. I would use 1 teaspoon per gallon. Her water temperature is too low. It should be no lower than 80 degrees at all times. Any time I give my fish a "bath" I never leave them in the water more than 10 minutes. If the Epsom salt is not doing the trick, try adding some aquarium salt to her water at the same ratio of 1 teaspoon per gallon. You can also try a salt water bath, instead of the constant salt. Unfortunately, when we buy our fish from a pet store, there is a good chance they are sick when we bring them home. I would also stop the Betta revive as it really does not do much for the fish. What type of food are you feeding her. Try to stay away from flake foods since it can constipate the fish. Most stores that sell the Betta have them sitting in water that has a weak Methylene Blue solution. I use that product, and as long as you don't mind the blue tint to everything in the tank for awhile, and you have no live plants, I would give that a try. It is one of the oldest tanks medication and it has always worked well for me.