I recently posted a topic titled "Will he make it?: Oranda with dropsy." Panda has since died but I noticed something later on that day that made me wonder what exactly happened. I realize there's nothing I can do for Panda now, but I'm curious for future reference. Before Panda died, she suddenly became very thin. After her passing, I noticed some small white dots on a plant leaf; they were eggs! Since Panda had dropsy, I'm wondering if the laying of the eggs didn't do her in. Is it stressful for a fish to lay eggs? Would it be something that could have possibly caused Panda's death? I'm very curious. I'm not at all experienced with breeding fish. If anyone could help me answer my questions, I'd really appreciate it.

Perhaps some eggs were stuck inside her and caused an infection leading to the dropsy?

I was also wondering, could she have been egg bound? I talked to a friend who used to own a pet shop and she said that maybe she was egg bound. Would being egg bound cause Panda's scales to stick out slightly and maybe appear to be dropsy? More importantly, what exactly does egg bound mean? I'm really confused! I have this really bad feeling that she DIDN'T have dropsy and I caused her death by medicating her!

I think it's quit rare that fish become egg bound but I suppose that if she was, the eggs stuck inside her could have caused an internal infection which then resulted in dropsy. It's possible but not very likely.
Being egg bound wouldn't cause the scales to pinecone alone, she would have definitely had dropsy as well. But, the fact that you found eggs on the plant probably means that she wasn't egg bound.
You could go round in circles trying to figure out what happened, and you're only upsetting yourself. I'm sure you did what you thought best at the time and who could ask more than that?