#it has to be thoroughly checked before it's sent to production so there's no nasty surprises

[aquitainequeen]

Editor: So the manuscript is probably going to be ready by 1st June; I was really hoping we be able to publish it in November, so that we could have copies for [huge academic conference]!

Me: ......

Me, internally: Mate, even if you submitted the manuscript today, we wouldn't be able to publish it by November.

[wisherbysharlight]

Can’t Deny It, Who You Are Is What You’re Feeling

Word Count: 5685

Pairings: Demus, LAMP(and all variations thereof)

Janus is trying to settle into his new role as the makeup artist for a small off-off Broadway production, but he can't seem to figure out the relationships going on in the troupe, let alone what he has going on with the eccentric set designer...

AO3 Link

Janus squinted at the side of the stage. He should definitely be trying to make himself useful, it being only his second day, but he had just finished an eye test on Valerie and he was fairly certain he could pass off his staring as making sure it looked right where she stood in the spotlights. Hell, that’s what he’d been doing originally, before getting side tracked by the male lead sliding off the stage to the crafts table, where he’d sidled up to Patton, the costume designer Janus had met yesterday. Patton had beamed like Christmas had come early and promptly started breaking off pieces of his muffin to feed over his shoulder to the man who was now firmly attached to his back with his arms around his waist, visibly giggling the entire time. They looked carefree and besotted with each other in a way that made an ugly curl of envy build up in his stomach, but he couldn’t look away once he’d started. At least, until the props master interrupted him, that is.

“They’re tooth-rottingly sweet, huh?” Janus would deny the sound he made til his dying day, but he was fairly certain it could only be described as a yelp. The prop master cackled, holding their hand out to shake, which Janus took, grateful for the distraction. “Hey, it’s Janus right? I’m Talyn. Could you come back this way and give me a hand with moving some of these bigger pieces over to the wings for the next scene?”

“Oh sure Talyn, I don’t have anything until my next stage test in an hour or so,” he assured, carefully pasting a smile on his face that he hoped looked genuine.

Talyn threw a thumbs-up over their shoulder as they went towards the workshop and Janus took the opportunity to look back over at the crafts table where Valerie had now joined the two during a break and was laughing brightly as the actor playfully picked Patton up, throwing him over his shoulder to head over to the drinks table, and Janus could hear the shrieks even from his distance, “Rooooman, oh my goodness, you put me down right now, you big show-off!” Huh, so Mr. Leading-Man was named Roman. Good to know.

“You’re just so easy to toss around, Patton-cake. Maybe stop being so cute and I won’t be so tempted,” Roman shot back, opening a can of apple juice with an overexaggerated casualness.

“I’ll get you back for this, you heathen,” Patton cried, changing tactics to poking and tickling at Roman’s sides.

The laughter could still be heard even in the back wings of the auditorium where the workshop was, and Talyn had to raise their voice to be heard as they worked to finagle a fake-flower covered arch through the doorway, “Thanks for the help. The set designer, Remus, is out shopping for supplies today and he’s usually the one who actually moves this kind of stuff, but the director needs this for some sort of choreography today.”

“No problem at all,” Janus assured again, eager to prove his usefulness. “Happy to help when I can.”

By the time they finished getting the bulky prop to the proper side of the stage, the break was over, Roman was back onstage with Valerie, Patton had gone back to the far wings of the stage to continue working, and Janus had a new actor to meet and a fake scar to attempt to do in a transition that lasted less than 10 minutes.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Less than a week later and Janus once again found himself squinting to the side of the stage, but this time it was up higher in the sound and light booth. Actors were scattered throughout the theater, running lines with each other, and the Technical Director seemed to be taking the opportunity to work with the Lighting Technician on setting up a few cues. Nothing out of the ordinary, most of the productions Janus had worked on in school worked the same way, no, the interesting part was just how close the Technical Director was to the Lighting Technician in the booth as they worked. They seemed to be able to communicate without speaking at all, effortlessly moving around each other and flicking different settings and somehow coming out with the correct configuration without ever saying a word.

The ease around each other was palpable, and that was what caught Janus off guard. He’d worked with the TD, Logan, once, and that interaction had been succinct, professional, and brokered no nonsense. Now, though, Logan’s shoulders seemed to loosen up the more time he spent up in the lighting box, and every once in a while, when the technician was triple or quadruple checking a light, Janus could see the TD huff and roll his eyes teasingly, then dodge an equally teasing swat to his side or shoulder. And he’d smile , a real smile, not a smirk or a placating pleasantry, and Janus felt that nasty longing that was tinged green with jealousy snake up into his throat again.

He forced himself to look away, finally, just to see Roman sitting in the makeup chair looking thoroughly amused and he was suddenly glad he’d chosen to wear a full face of makeup today, not just covering his left side like usual, because now he could at least hope that his thick foundation would cover up the way his face flamed up at getting caught staring at a couple again . “Hello Roman, did you need something?” he asked, going to his workstation to avoid having to look at the actor’s smirking face anymore.

“Hmm? Oh. Yes, yes, yes, I did, I was wondering if I would be able to offer up my time for you to practice the second act’s possession effects, as I know you were saying it would be difficult to practice on a dummy, and I am much further ahead in my memorization than the others,” Roman rattled off, and when Janus turned back to him, he quickly averted his eyes from the lighting box. Hm, so apparently he wasn’t the only one looking, that was interesting…

“That would be great actually, thank you. Getting that pallid coloring done three times in one intermission is going to be tough unless I do it a few times ahead of the show, I appreciate it.” He brought his rolling cart over to the makeup chair and crouched in front of Roman, watching carefully without giving away that he was focused on anything other than the makeup. After the third time Roman’s eyes strayed towards the light box he decided to speak up, “What’s the lighting technician’s name? Haven’t met him yet.”

“Oh you mean Tall, Dark, and Moody? That’s Virgil, him and Logan grew up together so they’re pretty used to each other by now, it’s really great to watch them work,” Roman enthused, and that made more sense, Roman was just appreciating the well oiled machine. “We all send Logan up there when it looks like he’s ready to murder the next person to say ‘slightly behind schedule’. Or when Virge gets new cues and gets so overwhelmed he starts gnawing on that giant hoodie he’s always got on. They really good at chilling each other out.”

Janus absorbed all of this as he brushed a small test bit of gray over Roman’s cheek bones, mulling it over and ultimately content to just let Roman talk. By the time he was done with the ghostly sheen, he had learned that Logan, Virgil, Patton, and Roman all went to college together and all joined the budding troupe together straight afterwards, even though they all had offers for separate larger companies scattered across the country. It was clear that Roman would talk about his little group forever if he were allowed to, had spent almost 10 minutes alone enthusing about some cosplay work Patton did in college with this adorably smitten twinkle to his eye, but Janus had to let him up from the chair eventually. When he stepped back to admire his work, though, Roman didn’t make any moves to get up. “Spent all this time talking about us, how about you? What brings you to our humble little company instead of some larger agency?”

Janus startled a bit, not used to getting asked anything about himself. “I suppose I was intrigued by the premise of the play, and wanted to do more hands-on work than most agencies allow new graduates.” It wasn’t quite a lie, and Roman didn’t need to know that this particular theater had been Janus’s saving grace growing up, how he owed the owner, Thomas, everything, how…

“My brother is the exact same way. Not happy unless he has full, creative control over his sets,” Roman laughed, and Janus tilted his head curiously. “I mean it’s better that he has an outlet for his thoughts. You don’t wanna know what he gets like when you try to stifle him, woo boy. Much better he swing a hammer at the scenery than at my head.”

“It was a wiffle ball bat, I only hit you once, and you didn’t even have a concussion. And beside that, you practically dared me to.”

Janus spun so quickly his beanie tilted slightly, and he fidgeted with his gloves to hide the fact that his heart was racing, but his face remained carefully even, “Remus. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.” The man had a way of blending into the shadows until you least wanted him to jump out at you. Janus had been too startled to even react the first time, but Remus had taken it as though he wasn’t scared at all and was now determined to make him scream. Luckily, Janus had great experience controlling his expressions, the few times he’d been caught daydreaming observing relationships around the theater notwithstanding.”Were you looking for Roman or are you just here to bother me?”

Remus swooned dramatically, “Bother! You wound me! Nono, Joan sent me, they want Roman on stage to help Virgey-poo calibrate the acoustics after I, er, nudged one of the speakers over. Accidentally, of course.”

Roman rolled his eyes and scoffed, “You pissing Virgil off has never once been an accident. But I’ll head over there before Tickle-Me-Emo has a heart attack.” He turned to Janus, patting him on the back, “Good luck with him, don’t let him near anything sharp or he’ll try to cut his own bangs in the name of creating a new hairstyle.”

“I can handle him just fine,” Janus drawled, and pointedly ignored the suggestive look Remus gave him in return. Instead, he focused again up on the lighting box where Virgil seemed to be ranting, hands flying in front of his face, as Logan patiently listened. Roman finally got up on the stage and Virgil started messing with the sound board, forehead creased in concentration, and Janus pretended there wasn’t a tug in his heart when Logan leaned over to smooth the skin out just between his eyebrows with his thumb, earning himself a small but genuine smile, before heading back down to work.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three weeks into rehearsals and Janus was really getting the hang of his new life. He and his roommate, Remy, the publicity manager for the theater, had moved into a new apartment closer to the theater with Remy’s boyfriend Emile, as between the three of them they could now afford more than what basically amounted to a shoebox. He’d made friends, something he’d thought was somewhat of a pipe dream before. He absolutely adored his job. Two to three times a day he would snag actors to do test runs of looks and see how they turned out on stage, tweaking things here and there when he could. The rest of the time he would help out around the theater, helping Logan with keeping Remus in line and on schedule(Remus would sometimes demand only Janus be allowed in his studio, and Janus had found that Remus was much more bearable when he felt he was paid attention to. Pleasant, even, if a little random and impulsive), shopping for props for Talyn, running lines with Valerie or Roman or Terrence or the background actors when the others were busy, or, most often, assisting Patton in costuming.

Apparently, Patton was supposed to have an assistant but they’d had a family emergency and Patton had brushed off the idea of trying to find someone else on short notice. Janus had noticed, of course, that Patton came in earlier and stayed later than almost anyone else and so he went out of his way to help where he could. He had some basic sewing experience and worked well as a sounding board for Patton to bounce his ideas off of while he worked, and Janus was thrilled to be able to be helpful. He had also noticed Patton was more willing to take breaks if he thought Janus needed one and Janus was not above being a bit dramatic with his yawns to get Patton to relax for a few minutes. He’d become fond of the guy.

He’d just gone to the craft table to grab something Patton would eat, intending to goad him into taking 15 minutes off. He’d gotten a bit sidetracked when Remus decided to “stumble” into him, leaving a large forest-green handprint right in the center of his chest and loudly declare that he needed to take it off (Janus made a note in his head to spend the next day in his workshop, he was definitely looking for attention, and he was missing the rowdier man a bit besides), but he had still only been gone about 20 minutes, so he was surprised when he heard another voice coming from the sewing room aside from Patton. “- and we need to make sure Valerie’s weighted dress is done before next Wednesday, she needs to rehearse the choreography with the added material-”

“Lolo, relax. I’ll get it done, I promise,” came Patton’s voice, light and almost teasing in a way Janus had never heard before. He’d almost describe it as… flirtatious? But that didn’t make any sense… “You’re starting to sound like Virgil with all that fretting. You know me, you know I never break a promise.”

“Y-yes,” and now Logan sounded flustered, which really was out of character, “Of course, Patton, I just wanted to make sure you had all the resources you needed and were not overextending yourself-”

Patton cut him off again, and this time Janus got the impression he was very amused, “I’ve got everything I need, right here, Mr. Berry. I even promise I’ll do something to relax tonight, sound good? Pick up a bottle of wine and have a night in, maybe watch a movie, something to really decompress…” Janus got the distinct feeling he was missing something, because Patton was speaking as though he had a completely different meaning behind the words, but they seemed completely innocent.

Janus finally decided to head into the studio then, feeling like he’d been eavesdropping on something private, and when he saw Patton he was leaning against his desk casually, no indication in his body language at all that he’d been flirting like Janus thought he’d heard. He thought maybe he’d been mistaken, but Logan was adjusting his tie even though the knot was perfect, like always, and had a very faint pink to his cheeks that he would have missed if he weren’t paying attention. He lightly cleared his throat before speaking, “Hello Janus. I was just heading out. Thank you for assisting Patton with keeping to the deadlines, it is much appreciated. Patton, we can continue our discussion later.” Patton smiled brightly, looking like the picture of innocence, and waved as Logan headed back towards Remus’s workshop and Janus repressed a wince. Yeah, he’d definitely visit tomorrow if Logan was going to get on his case about deadlines too.

He pasted a smile on, making sure not to indicate he’d heard anything before coming in, “Hey Pat, I grabbed some cookies and tea from the craft table. Remus sends his regards.” He gestured wryly to the graphic tee shirt he held in his hands, still grateful he’d worn an undershirt today.

Patton beamed and took a cookie, looking all the more innocent when he bounced a bit on his toes, curls catching in the light as they moved with him, “Woo! You rock, we definitely earned a few cookies today!” He tilted his head curiously at the stain, then nodded like he’d decided something, “I can definitely get that out, by the way, just need some vinegar and washing soda. Re does stuff like that to Roman all the time. Leave it with me and it’ll be perfectly fine by tomorrow!”

Janus smiled again, feeling taken care of in a way he hadn’t in a long time, and it felt more real this time, “Thanks Patton.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Janus was making good on his promise to himself the next day, lounging on a chair next to the open door of Remus’s workshop even though it was technically his day off. He came into the theater every day no matter what just in case anyone needed assistance, but it was nice to not feel guilty for not doing his own work. He people-watched between the points where Remus would ask for his opinion on a piece or start up a seemingly unrelated conversation, letting the silence fall when Remus needed to focus. He’d been watching Virgil up in the tech box, messing with the settings for the lighting of one of Valerie’s solo scenes while she rehearsed. He had that focused crease in his brow again but he didn’t look nearly as murderous as when Remus screwed around with his speakers, so Janus didn’t feel the need to get Logan yet, but when the door opened behind the engineer he’d still been expecting the technical director to come in.

What happened instead was much more confounding to Janus. Patton burst through the door, looking worn down and cranky, and paced the room a few times with his hands waving around. Virgil took his headphones off without turning around and nodded along, not breaking focus at all but still responding from what Janus could see. Then, seemingly out of steam, the costume designer maneuvered around cords and computers over to Virgil’s chair and promptly ducked under his arm and threw a leg over Virgil’s before burrowing his face into Virgil’s neck. Virgil didn’t flinch at all, continuing to focus on the lighting of the scene by simply arranging Patton slightly on his lap so he could tuck his own head over his shoulder.

At some point in the performance on stage, Valerie and the director aimed a thumbs up at the light box, and Virgil gave a self satisfied smile as he leaned back and finally wrapped his arms around Patton in return.

“Jannie?” Remus called, sitting back from his stage setting, a beautiful star-lit grove, “Do you think you could make me look like a werewolf?”

Janus blinked at him for a couple moments, not knowing how to respond, before he just  shrugged, “Sure. Might look a little weird with your mustache though.”

Remus nodded, once, with finality to it, “How about a tentacle monster?”

“Same answer,” Janus replied, quicker this time now that he knew where Remus’s head was at.

“Huh. I think I’d like to try being a tentacle monster at some point. Could probably terrify the shit outta Roman. Not to mention all the benefits of tentacles.”

Janus laughed, charmed as always by Remus’s ability to just say whatever he felt like without hiding anything, “You name the time and place and I’ll be there, Remus.”

Remus gave him a blinding smile and Janus felt his breath catch a bit. God, this whole thing was so stupid but he couldn’t bring himself to care at all. He found that he’d do just about anything to make Remus smile like that again. “It’s really nice to have a partner in crime now,” Remus enthused, twirling his paintbrush without a care in the world if he splashed himself with paint.

“Yeah, Re, I get what you mean.”

By the time Remus had gone back to work splattering a blood stain artfully over a tree in the middle of the otherwise beautiful landscape, Patton had left the tech box and Virgil was back to his computer with his headphones on.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was one week til opening night, and Janus had been sent to find Remus, who had apparently announced he was going on a quest for inspiration which alarmed pretty much everyone who knew him, but instead he’d stumbled upon Logan, alone in the orchestra pit, looking like he was ready to scream as he tugged at the padlock on a crate. Janus made his way over and tapped Logan on the shoulder lightly, “Hey, everything alright?”

Logan’s eyes were fiery as he responded, and Janus was just a little bit taken aback, “The previous production group left the alternate curtain ropes in this container, nicely labeled and everything, except the box has this godforsaken lock and I do not want to have to pay for bolt cutters. Or have the time to buy them before dress rehearsals. It’s rather… infuriating.”

Janus laughed a bit and knelt down next to the box, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket and taking a long thin piece of metal out, “You don’t have to do that, rotation locks like this are ridiculously easy to pick.” He manipulated the piece of metal up under the last rotation dial and pressed up, trying to listen for the click even though Roman and Valerie were rehearsing their final duet up on stage. He finally got the lock to pop open and turned to show it to Logan, only to find him thoroughly distracted by the scene on the stage.

Janus could understand, he had no interest in Roman Prince( his brother on the other hand...) but even he thought the way he was waltzing Valerie around the stage was a bit hypnotizing, the lyrics soft and sultry and romantic for the final number of the performance. Logan seemed to be completely entranced, singing along under his breath to Valerie’s piece and following their movements carefully. His eyes were filled with nothing short of adoration as he swayed to the music and as Janus watched carefully, the movements matched up fairly evenly to Valerie’s part in the dance as well. Logan didn’t look away until the director had called for a cut for adjustments. He shook himself slightly, seeming to remember all of a sudden that Janus was there, and flushed brightly as he took the lock from Janus, “Oh. Um. Thank you, very much. Where did you learn to pick locks like that?”

Janus could practically envision his mask slipping into place, covering the memories of manipulating the door to the theater open for what must have been the hundredth time only to come face to face with the new owner…

“Oh it’s barely a party trick, just something I picked up along the line. Let me know if you need any more street-rat techniques,” he brushed off with a wry grin, waving a hand dismissively, “Anywho, any chance you’ve seen Remus around?”

Logan eyed him a bit critically for a moment then seemed to choose not to push it further, “Yes, I believe I saw him lurking back by your station actually.”

Janus repressed a disappointed sigh at himself. Of course, Remus had come looking for him if something had upset him. He took off for the makeup room quickly, leaving Logan behind to stare up at the stage again while Roman began rehearsing the solo piece of the song. He didn’t miss the small wink Roman aimed down at the pit when the director had turned to answer a question, and filed that bit of information away with Logan’s admiring gaze to analyze after he’d made sure Remus was alright.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Janus was not used to anyone being in his station before him, but he was starting to become used to being surprised, so he didn’t even really react to seeing Roman and Virgil commandeering one of his makeup chairs, Roman’s hands buried in Virgil’s long black and purple hair, twisting it into intricate braids as they argued fiercely. “No, Virge, you don’t get to say ‘American Idiot’ is your favorite Broadway song. That doesn’t count.”

“It totally counts. You wouldn’t say ‘Honey, Honey’ doesn’t count, even though that’s just an ABBA song!”

“Don’t you dare bring Mamma Mia into this, that is a classic!”

“So is American Idiot!”

“Girls, girls, you’re both pretty,” Janus droned, smiling at the Venti Iced Mocha sitting on his rolling tray, ice not even melted yet, with a little doodle of a green dragon blowing fire at what he could only assume was Roman on one side, and a python wearing Janus’s signature beanie on the other. Virgil and Roman both turned to glare at him and he smirked back, lounging back in his chair and taking a long sip from his coffee in a loose impression of Remy, “What are you two doing in my domain aside from attempting to drive each other up the wall?”

“Princey was having a minor meltdown about opening night tomorrow, so I told him he could braid my hair,” Virgil told him, squinting curiously at the cup like he was trying to make out what the doodles were.

“Not true! Virgil was freaking out about opening night, not me, and he asked me to braid his hair,” Roman whined, though Janus noted that the whole time Roman’s hands never stopped moving and Virgil seemed to lean further and further into them, both their shoulders relaxing more and more as the braids took a more concrete form, “Though I will admit it is somewhat of a ritual for us at this point. Been doing this since freshman year of college when Virge first started growing his hair out.”

“Barely had enough for one braid back then, you would just do it and take it out over and over again while I ran lines with you,” Virgil commented fondly, fidgeting with the end of a piece which was left down.

“And I didn’t have the skills which I do now, of course.”

“Oh, no doubt. Maybe I’ll cut it so you could test that theory.”

“Don’t you dare!” Janus looked up from his thank you text to Remus(he’d responded with a giant squid emoji, followed by a dirty joke about proper thank yous which Janus found unreasonably funny), tilting his head curiously at Virgil’s smirk and Roman’s blush. “I-I mean, it’s your hair, obviously, but it definitely suits you being grown out.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll leave it be. Just for you,” Virgil shot back, and Janus felt like he could see the years of friendship in his smile.

Roman and Virgil stuck around for another hour until the director got there, ribbing each other over everything from music preference to sleeping habits to, bizarrely, the dark undertones of Disney movies, not even noticing when Janus slipped off to Remus’s workshop to have his own minor meltdown about opening night, lost in their own little world.

(Remus already had a hammer and some messed-up pottery out, actually encouraged him to smash stuff, cheering him on enthusiastically, and Janus thought he might have found his own pre-show ritual. He didn’t even realize he hadn’t felt envious of Roman and Virgil’s easy camaraderie and teasing affection at all until he was lying in bed that night.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Janus made a downright embarrassing shriek when he felt a mustache rub against his neck and Terrence broke off from their conversation to the living room with a playful eye roll, leaving the other two in the kitchen. “Come on Re, don’t start anything you can’t finish in public,” he teased lightly, patting Remus on the cheek, the adrenaline rush from three successful shows, the pure joy at being officially offered a full time position within the theater troupe from Thomas (from Thomas , who took a chance on the high school dropout who snuck in to the theater to use the big mirrors and the real theater makeup and listen to music echo through the empty stage. Thomas who so generously gave him the recommendation letter he needed to get the scholarship to cosmetology school. Thomas who found him a roommate so he wouldn’t have to stay with an older brother that didn’t understand him at all. Thomas who had seen his talent for deception and pushed him to turn it into art. Thomas who Janus owed his entire life to...) and the three vodka sodas in his system making it difficult to even begin to hide his flirtation, especially since he was fairly confident at this point he wouldn’t be rebuffed.

He felt more than heard the laugh that followed as Remus pulled away, still leaving his arms wrapped around Janus’s waist, a testament to the comfortable something (Janus refused to call it a relationship, even in his head, lest he burst the perfect bubble of happiness) they’d fallen into, “Come on Jan, you can’t deprive me of finally getting revenge on my brother for the years of cast-party-brand PDA he’s put me through.”

Janus stiffened and he turned to face Remus quickly, bracing himself on Remus’s chest when he started to trip a bit out of tipsiness. He also blamed the tipsiness for his lack of ability to cover up his curiosity, “PDA? What do you mean? I’ve spent the last 6 weeks trying to figure out who would end up with who in that group, but Roman’s already seeing someone?”

Remus smirked at him, clearly enjoying a less-inhibited Janus, and didn’t audibly answer. Instead, he laced their fingers together(Janus was not blushing like he was a middle-schooler. He wasn’t. If his foundation just so happened to help hide that lie then so be it.) and led him back towards the living room where a particularly rowdy game of beer pong was being played with Logan and Virgil on one side with only one cup in front of them and Joan and Talyn on the other with two, all four of them looking like a giant weight was off their shoulders with the last show of the first weekend over and done with and four whole days before the next one. Patton and Roman stood behind Logan and Virgil’s side, alternating between making ridiculous and distracting movements and singing along to whatever was playing through the speakers. The other team missed both their shots and Virgil snagged the balls, handing one to Logan before holding the other behind him. Patton leaned in and blew on the ball, then leaned further to press a kiss to Virgil’s cheek with a visible giggle while Roman mimicked his motions with Logan. Oh, ok, that kinda made sense for how the pairings worked out, he supposed…

Janus’s head tilted in confusion as Roman and Patton promptly switched positions and repeated their actions before they actually fell back. Logan and Virgil then glanced at each other from the corners of their eye, smirked, and sent both balls flying in unison. They didn’t even circle the rim, sinking easily, and the room erupted in chants to “chug” that Joan and Talyn took good naturedly on one knee as they emptied their cups.

Janus wasn’t watching the prop master and stage manager, though, instead focused on where Logan had apparently flung himself into Virgil’s arms in celebration, wrapped his legs around his waist, and promptly kissed him like he was trying to devour him, glasses tilted with no attempt being made to adjust them. Patton laughed brightly and tugged on Virgil’s sleeve to bring them both over to the couch with a practiced ease that said this was a fairly regular occurrence, Roman practically skipping as he followed. Logan transferred to Roman’s lap once they were settled, kissing him with the same amount of barely-restrained hunger, and Patton took his place in Virgil’s, pressing small kisses up his throat at the same time as he hooked his pinky with Logan’s and nudged his feet under Roman’s thigh, at which point Janus looked away, blushing furiously at just how shameless they all were.

He turned back to Remus with wide eyes just to find him openly laughing at him, “How long have you spent trying to figure that out, hm? For someone so smart you’re kinda a dumbass sometimes.”

Janus pouted, still feeling flustered and embarrassed that he’d somehow missed the idea of polyamory, but in the back of his mind he was delighted that the angry green jealous monster was no longer clawing at his insides at seeing so much open affection. He finally had someone who replaced that nasty curl with fluttering butterflies. Someone who gave a shit about him, and who was darkly hilarious and creative and didn’t hide anything but didn’t push Janus to be completely open in return. Someone Janus could truly see a future with, someone he felt he could trust.

He made a calculated decision, and his mouth turned up in a smirk as he grabbed Remus’s wrist and tugged him over to the pong table, “Tell you what, Re-Re. You help me win and you can have as much revenge as you want.”

Remus’s eyes went dark but his smile was blinding, “And if we lose?”

Janus grinned back, sharp and wicked, and easily sunk his first ball despite Remy’s boyfriend Emile jumping around ridiculously on the other side, “Guess you’ll just have to keep up so we don’t.” Remus’s grin widened even further at the challenge and he nodded resolutely, focus zeroed in.

For all the talk of revenge, they didn’t even notice Roman’s indignant squawk when Remus pinned Janus to the wall before Remy could even take the last cup off the table.

[bunnysunnymew]

Bunnysunnymew’s tips and tricks for buying commissions

Hey people of tumblr. So I’ve been buying commissions for over 2 years now and I thought I’d give out some helpful tips and tricks for those of you just getting into it, things that I wish I had know when I stated commissioning. First advice is don’t start because it quickly becomes an addiction. However if you still want to, here's what to do.

DO

ASK! About EVERYTHING. Check their TOS and commission page first and if you can’t find information there then MAKE SURE YOU ASK! Before you pay them be sure you  know:

Their refund policy

Their estimated wait time

Their “changes fee” policy. Meany artist charge extra if they have to make a change to the drawing (or even to the sketch for some) and that can wrack up to be a handful. Avoid commissioning people unwilling to make changes after the product is given

Their policy on you using the art  and posting the art to other websites. Some Artists put tricky little clauses in their Terms of Service saying you can’t post it anywhere or with customs and adopts you can’t do certain things with the character, so make sure you know that first and avoid commissioning people with a lot of restrictions

THEIR TERMS OF SERVICE! And make sure you read it thoroughly! I know we are all used to just clicking agree when it comes to tos’s on other things but when it comes to art IT IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIALLY THAT YOU READ IT! Otherwise they can just wright in clauses stating all payment is final and they have unlimited time to complete it so you might wait two years and still be empty handed, and they still legally will have the upperhand on you.

If WIPs (works in progress) are induced or if you have to ask for them

Their will not draw list. Some artists have certain things that they will not draw, like not safe for work, fetishes overly complicated machines, furries, gore, and offensive content. If you want a drawing of something that is on someone's do not draw list, do yourself a favor, find someone else.This is not for their sake, its for yours. All you are going to be doing is wasting everyone's time and making the artists (and their fans when they rant about it publicly) very angry. And if you somehow do talk them into drawing it, witch 99% of the time you won’t they will do a garbage job. Trust me, there is always someone else who is willing to draw what you want. It doesn't matter how much you liked their style find someone else someone whos all about that kind of art and you will have a much more pleasant time.

Currency conversions. Not everyone does things in the american dollar so if their paying in pounds, CAD, yen or whatever know how much the american equivalent is. A Lot of people who are not american will have lower prices, however this isnt always the case

2) Utilize same day commissions

This induces in stream commissions on websites like https://picarto.tv where you can get your commission in stream! This is a guarantee that you will avoid people who take months and months to complete or never deliver at all. Just keep in mind that not everyone on those websites who tag their stuff as commissions are taking them right then and there, so you might need to fish around a little bit before finding a winner

This also induces commissions at conventions, especially ones that have multiple days, Make sure you hit up the vendor's hall before you go to any of the panels so you can get on their list faster. If they say it will be done by the end of the convention then thats a green light and your good to go. HOWEVER, IF THEY SAY THAT IT WILL BE MAILED/SENT AFTER THE CON, OR IF YOU GO TO THEM ON THE LAST DAY OF THE CON TOWARDS THE END OF THE DAY AND YOUR COMMISSION'S STILL NOT DONE YET BE EXTREMELY WEARY! Even so some of them may be genuine and honest,  just as many of them will look you in they eye and promise you your commission and then  never deliver. THIS INCLUDES PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY PROVIDED YOU WITH A PRODUCT.

              ~Storytime: So one time I was at a convention and I found this person who made furry badges at a great price, so I bought one, and I’ll admit to this day its one of if not the best piece of art I have of the character that I commissioned (and believe me, I have a lot of art of this character). Because of this I felt inclined to trust the artist when they told me they would mail it out to me and not only did I buy another commission but I convinced my younger sister to buy one as well  (AND SHE PAID CASH). I was surprised when I saw them at a convention a few weeks later taking more commissions, but I was like its ok its only been a few weeks. Fast foreword to the end of the month, and I still don’t have ether commission. I contact them several times after, sometimes they reply, sometimes they ignore me. 3 months later, they sent me a WIP for my commission. I thanked for the update. I continues asking questions about my commission and my sisters commission. A month later I revived my commission. My sister on the other hand NEVER received hers. After moths and moths of integrating the artist, they claimed the art must have gotten lost in the mail. And insted of refunding her the full amount, (she paid 30 dollars) they claimed she paid 20 and refunded my paypal (because they didn't have hers) 19 dollars and 20 cents (even less than what she claimed my sister paid). You want to know why she got away with it? Because my sister paid cash so we didn't have proof and because we trusted the artist to keep their word. Do not make the same mistake!

3) Set due dates if you can. If you can get them to agree a commission must be done by a certain date or you will be refunded you are much much safer. Keep in mind meny artists aren’t willing to do this  because they claim a due date stresses them out or something so when you find someone who will hold onto that person and don’t let go. Although it's not guaranteed they won't bail on you and just stop responding, this extra insurance makes it far less likey that you’ll get ripped off

4) Search around for good prices first. Don’t just settle with the first person that has nice art, look around! Expensive artists usually are not worth it, and you will get way more bang for your buck if you take the time to search for example this:

Cost me less then 7 dollars

 It took me a while to find this sweet deal, I was searching all day on the streams for a good artist to draw me some stuff and at one point I was getting so desperate i was almost willing to just pay 15 dollars for a sketch, when I stumbled upon this lovey lovey artist. This wasn’t even the first thing I commissioned them, when I saw what great quality they had for a low prices I got another!  They are hidden, but people with great affordable prices are out there, so don’t waste your money with people who are gonna overcharge or charge you more for art than you feel comfortable with

5) Check out their other artwork first. NEVER commission someone until you have thoroughly gone though their gallery and seen examples of past commissions. Sometimes Artists will make their icons prices they commissioned themselves or only put their best work on the front page. Don't ever assume buy looking at one piece that all their art will be the same quality.

6) If your asking about the prices of something make sure you specify that you are only inquiring about the commission and have not yet fully committed. This is very important, both with emails and in person commissions. Don't let them add you to their queue until you've make payment, especially in live streams. Say you are asking for reference and you aren't sure yet in the first sentence. It will make the artist a little disappointed, but it will make them much more disappointed if they start working on your art and you back out, and if they finish the piece before they realize you were just inquiring, you can get in some real hot water.

~Storytime, one time I was at a convention and I was going around asking if artists would be willing to make a certain piece for me (that involved controversial subject matter). The artist immediately asked for my name and information which I guess should have been a bg read flag, and then they sent me a text saying they had started working on it. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I actually wasn’t interested because the prices were so high, so I ended up paying 50 dollars for something that (while they had clearly put effort into and it wasn't bad) I couldn't afford and didn't exactly value that much. Anxiety about hurting artists feelings can come at the worst of times, even to people like me who are praticuraly strong willed. Do yourself a favor and avoid the situation entirely by being extra clear up front and avoiding any misunderstandings from the get go

7) Barter prices in PRIVATE. This is one I say use with caution, because there are some artists who will be offended that you even asked. However, for every artist I’ve meet who has been like “HOW DARE YOU ASK ME TO CHANGE MY PRICES?!” there are 2 others that were like “yeah, that sounds ok”. Just whatever you do, DO NOT ASK ABOUT IT IN PUBIC! Not unless you want a ton of their rabid fans to come after you and send you nasty hate messages about committing what they view as ultimate sin against their senpai

8) Use flowery, delicate language when asking for changes, discounts and anything else extra that you might want. Artists tend to be hypersensitive people who can sometimes take it personally when you ask them to change their art.  That's why you need to sugar coat EVERYTHING when you talk to them. For example, instead of saying something like “Why did you not draw little white mittens on the end of mittens paws? Did you not read anything I sent you about his character description? Did you not look at the ref at all??? It's LITERALLY IN HIS NAME  YOU Imbecile!” Try something like “ Hey it’s looking really good so far but is there any way you can add little white mittens on his paws? I thought I mentioned that in the original message I sent you but I’m very sorry if I didn’t” Try to avoid accusing them of anything unless it's absolutely necessary because they do not react well to that at all

9) Tip if they did something extra for you, did an amazing job, or have prices you feel are to low. Providing incentive for good behavior will make it more likely to happen in the future.

10) Follow the artist on the social media platform you found them on and if they don't post regularly, do not commission them (more on that later). This will also let you know when they have sales, and any updates and delays you may be having that may delay

11) provide a ref if you can. If it's your first commission ever you may be thinking, “but bunny, I can’t draw! That’s why I’m commissioning other people to draw for me!” Let me tell you something, A POORLY DRAWN REF IS BETTER THAN NO REF AT ALL. Descriptions are ok but they allow a lot of room for error. Provide a description and some kind of drawing, even if its poorly drawn. The artist won't judge you, your paying them. If not you can commission someone without a visual ref, however be aware you may be setting yourself up for potential major inconstancys 

12) try offering them cash to speed up your commission if they aren't doing it fast enough. Not all artist will do this but some will. Cation though, I would not advise this with people who you have never commissioned before and have taken alone time with your commission with no WIP, and they might just be taking your money with no result

13)Have cation with sellers who don't speak your native language. Non-English speakers might have cheaper prices, and be super sweet. However leagues barrier can sometimes cause problem as to communicating what kind of commission you want which can cause problems

14) Check their queue first!!!!!!!!!

~Storytime. So somewhat recently I commissioned someone on furaffinity. And i checked all my boxes. They had good prices, specialized in what I was looking for, seemed active and had a consistent gallery. So I went ahead and commissioned them 30 dollars worth of art. Then I SAW THEIR QUEUE AND FELT INSTANT REGRET. You see I commissioned them in October, of this year. Their queue went back to 2016. It's been over a month now with no WIP and honestly I doubt I’ll be getting it any time soon ALWAYS CHECK FIRST!

Dont:

1) pay in cash (paper cash). If your read the story about the unfaithful commissioner above you probably just in case you should know that when you pay in cash at conventions the majority of people do not provide physical receet. Not only this but even if they do they are easy to lose. I strongly advise you pay with card and pay the extra card processing fee because that gets you a permanent non-loseable proof of precious so it's way harder for them to rip you off.

2) Commission your IRL friends. But they are your best friend and you have to be supportive, right! No! do not do it! I don’t care how good their art is, or how good their prices are, never commission your IRL close friends! It is not worth possible fights and your friendship

~Storytime: So one time I decided to commission one of my best friends in the world. I have known this person for years, they are honestly one of the funniest sweetest and best humans I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. I would take a bullet for this person. That being said I will NEVER EVER EVER COMMISSION THEM AGAIN. Now I came to them about a custom character I had come up with and they said they would do a colored drawing for 15 dollars witch was a good deal. I’d also like to mention that I had commissioned them multiple times in the past with absolutely no problems. But this time I had gotten into a personal fight with my friend, I felt like they were not spending enough time with me and they felt like I was interionaly going out of my way to make them feel bad. So when I inquired about my oc, I was a bit hostel. However this person decided to take their hostility to another level. They claimed that I requested too many changes to the oc and because they helped come up with the design and draw it themselves it was their property now, then said they were going to sell MY OC as an adoptable on their page and they wouldn't let me buy it. I convinced them to sell me back MY OWN OC (and a sketch of my own OC) for the same price as the original commission was worth, then they said i wasn't aloud to make any changes or edits to the art otherwise they regain rights to the OC and If I posted the sketch anywhere I had to use the version with their obnoxiously large signature otherwise they would regain rights to the OC. When I accused them of messing up my commission out of spite for a personal feud, they admitted that was the reason and said it doesn't matter because it's their art. Eventually we both apologize and made up, but that still doesn't change the fact that my commissioner tried to steal my own oc. It was by far the worst commission experience i ever had

3) publicly criticize their prices. It’ll just tick them off and send their little minions after you. It doesn't matter how ridiculous it is, just let it be and let the free market work itself out, they never view it as helpful anyways, and not selling anything is the only way to get most of them to learn

4)commission artists unwilling to change their style. This is why you ask about changes up front, because if they aren't willing to make changes, they aren't worth commissioning. It doesn't matter how much your paying them either. I paid 60 dollars to an artist and they were still unwilling to make a basic change because it “didn’t suit their style”

5) Use friends and family feature on paypal:  see something like this?

BE SKEPTICAL! PayPal separates these options into two separate categories for a reason! AND THAT REASON IS BUYER PROTECTION! IF YOU USE THE FRIENDS AND FAMILY OPTION YOU ARE GIVING UP ALL YOUR RIGHTS AS A CONSUMER, LIKE THE RIGHT TO A REFUND IF THE PRODUCT IS NEVER DELIVERED! DON'T DO IT! Insted, just offer to pay the difference. A Lot of artists just do this to get around paypal service fee, so if you pay the service fee yourself, there shouldn't be an issue. If they still want you to use the friends and family feature back out!

6) Bug the artist too much. While it is important to get your art in a timely manner, asking an artist constantly will mostly likely make them angry. That's why you get an ETA at the beginning. If they say it will take a week it's ok to ask them about updates every other day, but not if they say it will take a month. If they don’t give you an eta then ask away because you don’t want to get scammed. They kinda brought it on themselves at that point.

7) Be a pushover: this is probably the hardest one, but if they draw something super wrong tell them. You paid money for it, at the end of the day you getting a product that you paid for is more important than their feelings being intact

8)ASSUME THAT THE AMOUNT YOU PAY WILL EQUATE TO THE QUALITY OF THE ART!

Let me show you something

^ this was 17 dollars

^this was 10

and THIS (not linking bc I’m not trying to publicly attack them)

Was 60. All are about the same quality. Actually, I’d argue the 60 dolor one is worth less than the others. Sometimes you can get a bang for your buck. Other times you pay a bunch of money and get next to nothing. Don't assume because you payed a lot of money for something it will be high quality, or vice versa

9)Commission big name artists if you don’t want to pay more money

the more popular they are the more they can change, it's simple economics. Good news is it's hard for popular artists to rip people off because they are in the spotlight and have a lot to lose from doing so. Bad news, expect high prices and long wait times from the get go

10) commission someone rarely active. If you don’t see very much activity on their account that's a huge red flag they might go off the grid

11) treat the artist like a friend or get super personal with them (or flirt with them)

Treat your artist the same way you would treat any other person you'd do business with. Sure they might inspire you and you may relate to their work but that doesn't mean they wanna hear about your life problems or be your best friend. It is a profession, so keep it professional. And if you try flirting with them over a risque piece all you are going to do is make them extremely uncomfortable and get yourself blocked. Just because you pay them money does not make them your friend. It makes you their customer, the same as a lower, doctor, or local cashier.

12) buy a commission you don't want.  Do not buy out of obligation because you talked to them. You will run out of money very quickly

That’s about it. feel free to add on to this post if you guys find anything else. Sorry about all the spelling mistakes, I suck at spelling. I ran it through google docs but I know there’s a lot of stuff that wasn't caught.

[arabellaflynn]

I woke up this morning trying desperately to remember what day of the week it was and whether there was anything special about it. As of this writing, it's Friday, and no. 

It has become clear that I have moved into a situation of grinding poverty. I knew when I got here that nobody was going to have any money. Literally everybody involved in this venture is disabled in some way, which in modern America means you are left to starve by default. What I didn't realize until I got here is that the other two kids in this apartment grew up in this kind of deprivation, without any useful parental figures of any kind.

When I arrived, there was no bath mat. I assumed this was because everyone was skint and had better things to do with $8 than buy one. I probably had better things to do with that money, but I was tired of slipping on wet tile, so I went and ordered one anyway. They said thank you. I also ordered a wire shelf for the freezer, because I was tired of vegan "patties" trying to avalanche onto my feet every time I opened the door. They said WAIT SHIT WHAT FREEZER SHELVES ARE A THING? I said yes, you can get them for $10 on Amazon. My parents were emotionally abusive and neglectful, but they were also upper-middle class and WASPy as fuck. The one thing they did do at a near-Olympic level of expertise was buy fucking housewares.

I gave the shorter housemate a bag of toiletry samples I keep around for travel, because who the fuck knows when that will be happening again. They were astounded by the quality. The samples were all products I use or have used. None were expensive. When people ask me what kind of shampoo I use the answer is "the kind that is on sale 2/$7 when I go to CVS". I get annoyed when I have to buy more Cetaphil once every four years and it costs $14.99 a vat instead of $6.99. 

Tuesday night, everyone had oodles of fun talking to the EMTs. Short Housemate has a laundry list of medical problems, and "asthma" is on it about six times. We were busy getting all seven house rats treated for lice (oh, yes -- the rats are scratching themselves scabby again, and between the two of us, we had seven at the time), a process that involves cleaning all the cages thoroughly and having the individual rats out and quarantined for an hour while the Revolution dries, so the other rats don't groom it off them. Brief tangent, vet visits ain't free, there is a GoFundMe here. 

Short Housemate's love for rats and allergy to rats are almost equal. They had a coughing fit that turned into an asthma attack, lunged for their inhaler and found that didn't fix it, sent Tall Housemate (their gf) off to get their nebulizer, found that didn't fix it, foolishly tried to stand up, conked right out on the floor in front of me and had a hypoxic seizure. I asked Tall Housemate if they'd ever done this in front of her before. Answer: No. Okay then. Time for 911. Short Housemate has what I gather is some pretty nasty history with hospitals and Tall Housemate has mentioned being on the spectrum and has been told 'no hospitals' by Short Housemate, so I had to contend with the two flailing at me trying to get me off the phone while I waved at both of them to fuck off and told the dispatcher where we were. 

I get to do this about once a decade. The last time it happened, we lived in an apartment literally behind an ambulance station. The roommate in question had been so sick she was unable to keep anything down, including water, for two days, which she had not bothered to tell us. I stole her shoes while she was on the floor and hurled them back into the bowels of the apartment so she couldn't be a dumbass and try to go to work like that, phoned her boss to tell him that she'd passed out on the bathroom floor so he wouldn't let her go to work like that, and told her that if she didn't gather her shit and call her sister to take her to the ER I was going to hover over her until she lost consciousness again, at which point I would go next door and summon the paramedics in person.

I've now been apologized to by Short Housemate, Tall Housemate, and a related third party who was on the phone with them from a different state at the time, who all told me I did the right thing. Yes, I know, that's why I did it. I would like Short Housemate to be alive to be pissed at me later. The fact that this was the correct thing to do was confirmed by the way the EMTs refused to leave our living room until either Short Housemate could breathe well enough to talk to the attending on the phone, or they agreed to ride in the whoo-whoo wagon to the actual hospital, where they could be given the really good drugs under supervision.

This evening I got to make a three-hour round trip out to Lowell to pick up yet more rats. People keep contacting Short Housemate to take rats who need new homes, and they are terrible at saying no. This set belonged to a lady who was incredibly flaky about getting them to us, and also owned a snake so was probably not so big on #ratlivesmatter, if you catch my drift. She ghosted us twice before I said I would just goddamn go up to Lowell on the train and get them from her. 

Lowell, MA, was a lovely town about 100 years ago, and hasn't quite caught up since. It's at the end of the commuter rail line, so that was a nice 45 minute ride that I got to spend staring out the window, because the car wifi wasn't working and my tablet was running out of battery. She said the rats were skittish so I was prepared for biting, but no; she just didn't know anything about rats. They were wiggly and zoomy, but it took me all of two minutes to scoop them out of the shoebox she had them in and plop them into the cat carrier I brought. Then I got right back on the same train I'd just gotten off of to get back into Boston, where the conductor saved me from having to buy a return ticket by not giving two shits, which is frequently the case. 

[The commuter rail out here could be accurately described as "laissez-fare". The conductors tend to only check passes in the direction the regular commuters are going (in my case, from Boston to Lowell at 5 o'clock on a Friday) and otherwise just sort of walk through the car making sure you're not setting the seats on fire or trying to transport cattle to a flag stop or whatever. If you're traveling from one stop outside of the central zone in Boston to the next stop outside of Boston, they will be annoyed if you actually stop them and attempt to buy a ticket.]

The two rats are much younger than she thought they were. She said six months; they look more like 4-ish, and sort of small for that. My guess is that they were fed nothing but plain lab block, which is okay for them, but does not result in the sort of squashy chonks that my rats generally are. We promptly fed them scrambled eggs and peas, which they devoured. The boy is mine and is named Tseng, because I have a theme here; the girl belongs to Short Housemate and, as she has been living in a cage with the boy(!?!?!?) is predictably already pregnant.

from Blogger https://ift.tt/2E6NY5O via IFTTT -------------------- Enjoy my writing? Consider becoming a Patron, subscribing via Kindle, or just toss a little something in my tip jar. Thanks!

[poop4u]

Dog Ear Infection — What to Do

#Poop4U

The post Dog Ear Infection — What to Do by Dr. Ernie Ward appeared first on Dogster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Dogster.com.

Bosco was a cheerful Cocker Spaniel, quick with a lick and a wag. His mom, however, was not so cheerful and remarkably reluctant to smile. I was seeing Bosco for the first time, and his major issue was one many Cocker Spaniels face: chronic ear infections.

“All I want to know is how bad is his ear infection and can you cure it? I’ve been to four veterinarians over the past year and none of them have been successful. I’ll give you one chance, Dr. Ward,” she said.

“Well, I’ll do my very best to help Bosco. I know how much you care about him and I want to help him as much as …” Swifter than a cat strike, Mrs. Watkins sprung a hand in my face.

“Save me the pleasantries, doctor, and get to work.”

A common problem

Ear infections in dogs are one of the most common — and frustrating — conditions seen by veterinarians. Dog ears are particularly problematic because of:

their conformation (the “L” shape that traps moisture and heat)

skin allergies (don’t forget the ears are an extension of the skin)

foreign debris that becomes stuck

infections caused by bacteria, fungi and yeast.

Many dogs have a combination or most of these, making treatment a real challenge.

I carefully examined Bosco’s ear canals. Dogs with recurrent ear infections often have characteristic changes I describe as cobblestoning. Severe or chronic ear infections often cause the ear canal lining to become undulated with raised areas, similar to a cobblestone street. Bacteria and fungi are more likely to grow in these cracks and crevices, increasing the chances of reinfection. Other dogs will have long, tapering ear canals with a sharp bend or twist, preventing normal drying air flow, leading to high humidity. Some will have permanent scarring (or even holes) on their eardrum (tympanum). Bosco had all of these.

Dogs ears are extremely susceptible to infection due to many factors. Photography by: ©mrPliskin | Getty Images

In active ear infections, I typically see a thick, mucous covering that has an offensive odor. I can smell Pseudomonas by its unique “grape” scent as soon as I lift an ear flap. The fungus Malassezia whiffs an undeniable “wet, muddy dog that rolled in a garbage dumpster” and nasty gram-negative bacteria stench reminds me of “worst morning breath ever.” Bosco’s ears reeked of spoiled grape juice.

I took culture samples from Bosco’s ears to send to the lab to find out what specific organisms were responsible for his infection and what medications would be effective against them. I also saved samples for me to stain and examine microscopically. My preliminary findings could give me a head start on treatment while we waited for the culture and sensitivity results.

As expected, I saw abundant bacterial organisms. What concerned me most was the presence of gram-negative rods, an early indicator that Bosco may have a more serious, and often antibiotic- resistant, Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection.

Treatment options

My plan was to thoroughly clean Bosco’s ears, disrupting and removing the bacterial biofilm, applying an antibiotic generally effective against Pseudomonas directly into the ear canal and prescribing an anti-inflammatory, antibiotic and home ear-cleaning regimen. Before cleaning the ears, I administered a mild anesthetic to ease any discomfort. After double-checking to make sure his eardrums were intact, I flushed the ear canals with warm, sterile water and coated them with an antibiotic solution. I sent him home with instructions to fill up each ear canal twice daily with an antibiotic mixed in a Tris-EDTA ear wash solution and a low dose of prednisolone to help reduce inflammation and pain. Bosco seemed more comfortable based on his increased tail wagging as he left my clinic, and I told Mrs. Watkins I’d call as soon as the lab results were complete.

The culture results arrived and indicated a highly drug-resistant strain of Pseudomonas was to blame. Luckily, the enrofloxacin I prescribed was one of the few antibiotics still effective. I updated Mrs. Watkins, and she reported that Bosco was better, but that “he was always better for a couple of days.” We scheduled a recheck in two weeks.

“I don’t know, and don’t care, what you did, but Bosco has been a different dog these past two-and-half weeks. Is he cured?”

That was a tough question. Most dogs with chronic ear infections require lifelong rechecks and ear cleaning. Many dog owners only seek veterinary help when things get out of control, leading to an infinite cycle of relapse-treatment- relapse. I recommended twice-monthly rechecks for the next three months, then monthly for another six. Periodically, we’d run bacterial cultures to identify any emerging infections before they became consequential.

“So, he’s not cured?”

“I’m afraid that’s a tall order for any dog suffering from a condition such as this. We can do our best to keep it …” Even over the phone, she could silence me.

“Keep it to yourself. As long as he feels this good, I’ll follow your advice. We’ll see you whenever you say.” And with that, a click. I gently hung up my phone, thrilled I made the most of my “one chance” with another pet patient.

Safe tips for clean ears

Keep an eye on your dog’s ears for any signs of infections. Regular cleaning needs only to be done if prescribed by your veterinarian, as over-cleaning can cause irritation and inflammation and even contribute to bacterial or fungal infections. If you do have to clean your dog’s ears, follow these tips:

Use only veterinary-approved and recommended ear-cleaning solutions. Different ear cleaning products may alter the ear canal’s pH, increasing the likelihood of infections. Do not use a cotton swab or other devices inside your dog’s ears. You may inadvertently injure the lining or cause swelling.

Warm the ear solution slightly by holding in your hands or pocket for a few minutes prior to instilling in the ear.

Most veterinary ear-cleaning solutions are designed to kill bacteria, yeast or fungi and to loosen waxy debris. Do not forcefully irrigate or “squirt” the liquid; you could accidentally damage the eardrum. Instill until the ear canal is filled, and either gently wipe out the excess solution or your dog will shake the remaining liquid out of the ear canal. Most ear-cleaning solutions include a drying agent and do not require you to dry out the ear canal with a cloth or paper towel. Drying the ear canal can actually damage or irritate the sensitive tissue or push debris and infection deeper into the ear canal.

Do not use homemade solutions, especially vinegar-and-water solutions. Unless you carefully balance the solution pH, you could damage the ear canal or worsen an existing infection.

About the author:

Dr. Ernie Ward is an internationally recognized veterinarian known for his innovations in general small-animal practice, long-term medication monitoring, special needs of senior dogs and cats, and pet obesity. He has authored three books and has been a frequent guest on numerous TV programs.

Learn more about preventing and treating ear infections on dogster.com:

What can be Done to Prevent Recurrent Ear Infections?

Why Won’t Some Ear Infections Resolve?

Why do Dogs Get Ear Infections After Swimming?

The post Dog Ear Infection — What to Do by Dr. Ernie Ward appeared first on Dogster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Dogster.com.

Poop4U Blog via www.Poop4U.com Dr. Ernie Ward, Khareem Sudlow

[itsiotrecords-blog]

http://ift.tt/2s3I3pG

The mouth is one of those weird parts of the body that we all have, but we don’t tend to know much about. It’s not a big surprise that this is the case – after all, it’s kind of a weird thing to think about. Since this is where we take in all of our food and drink, it could get a little odd to think about the nasty side of things. You might get to a point where even the thought of eating or drinking seems disgusting now that you know what is going on in there. Well, being put off by something is no reason not to do a bit of research into it. We have been scouring medical and scientific knowledge to find out all of the most disgusting and nastiest facts about our mouths. The great news is that we can now share all of this information with you! Well, the great news for us. You might not find it so enjoyable. But human nature means that now, even though you have been warned, you just have to read on to see how disgusting these facts can possibly be. Don’t worry about it – they can’t be that bad! After all, it’s not as if you are going to learn exactly how much bacteria you can find in your mouth at any given time, or what kind of things can happen if you get an infection in your mouth. We won’t be putting you off the idea of kissing, or making you feel OCD about brushing your teeth. Oh, wait, sorry – that’s exactly what you’re about to read!

#1 Men’s Tongues Are Longer Let’s start off with something a little interesting which might help you out in the bedroom. In general, men have longer tongues than women – which gives you that extra bit of length if you really want to impress someone. You could probably guess this if you think about Gene Simmons, who is known for having a ridiculously long tongue. There are also more men who can touch the tip of their nose with their tongue than there are women. It’s kind of gross though to think about this incredibly strong muscle, which does a lot of work inside the mouth. Do those with longer tongues still fit their mouths perfectly? Or is there a bit of curling going on? It doesn’t really bear thinking about. Also, if you do start thinking about it, before long your tongue starts feeling pretty weird. You’ll start to forget what you are supposed to do with it when it’s not being used.

#2 You Can’t Smell Your Own Breath You might believe that you can check for bad breath by cupping a hand in front of your face, breathing, and then quickly smelling the air in your hand. Actually, that won’t help you at all. The thing is that when you are talking, you are drawing air from the back of your mouth, but this isn’t the case when you are simply breathing. Now take a guess as to where the worst odours come from. That’s right – the back of your mouth! The best way to check for bad breath is to scrape your tongue, starting as far back as possible, and then smell the scraper. Or you could just ask someone whether you have bad breath or not, so long as you trust that they will be honest (which can be tough). Or then again, maybe just brush your teeth regularly and avoid smelly foods so that there is less risk of having smelly breath in the first place.

#3 Cancer Has A Certain Mouth-Smell Cancer has a certain smell which your dentist might notice before you do. Especially if you have cancer of the throat, nose, or mouth, it might be the people closest to your mouth who spot the very first symptoms that could save your life. It is said to have a bit of a sour, cheesy smell, so look out for this. The symptom is caused by the fact that radiation (which is also responsible for many cancers) can reduce the amount of mucus in your mouth and throat, thus giving you smelly breath. There are lots of other diseases which have signs in the mouth, too. These include osteoarthritis, as well as diabetes. Those who have gum disease are also more likely to have a range of other conditions, too. The colour and texture of your tongue is yet another indicator which medical practitioners can use to assess your health.

#4 Toothpaste Shouldn’t Be Rinsed Out Think toothpaste tastes gross and should be thoroughly washed out of your mouth after brushing? You’re not alone, and most people also believe that you need to use water to swill out your mouth to remove all traces of dirt that have been knocked loose during brushing. Actually, you might be encouraging harmful bacteria to grow by doing this. What you are supposed to do is to spit out your toothpaste after brushing, but then swallow everything you can’t get rid of. This is because the longer the fluoride in the toothpaste stays in direct contact with your teeth, the more of an effect it can have. So all of those bits of bacteria and dirt floating around with the leftover toothpaste should be held on to for as long as possible. It will feel gross for sure when you first start doing it, but this nasty habit is actually the cleanest option.

#5 Saliva Is Made From Blood Think about the kind of bodily fluids you don’t want in your mouth, and blood is bound to be one of them. But the thing is, our mouths are full of blood every day – we just don’t realize it. Blood flows into one of the glands located on our face and then the plasma, which is the fluid-filled part of our blood, is filtered out. It eventually gets converted to saliva through a long process using the specialized cells in our salivary glands. Some elements of the plasma are cut out and sent back to be reabsorbed into the bloodstream, while others make it through to the final cut. Before completion, the saliva has to also pass through one of our mucus glands, which is what helps to make it sticky. Yum. And in case you were wondering, we make a lot of this sticky, thinned-out blood to keep in our mouths moist – a huge amount, in fact.

#6 You Generate A LOT Of Saliva So, saliva is pretty gross to start with, and even more nasty now that we know that it is made out of blood. But how much of it would you say you produce every day? The answer is actually a litre, so you are basically chugging it all day long. During your lifetime, you will make more than 30,000 litres of this saliva. Apparently, if you are an introvert and get anxious in social situations, then you will produce even more than that, as your system goes into overdrive to cope with the situation. Your lifetime’s saliva is more than enough to fill a swimming pool. That’s the kind of pool that no one would ever, ever want to go for a swim in. Even the thought of dipping a toe into it is nasty beyond words. Let’s move on before we have to up the grossness levels with something else being brought up out of our stomachs and through our mouths.

#7 Kissing Passes A Lot Of Bacteria Hands up, who likes to kiss? That’s going to be the vast majority of you, right? Well, you might think twice about it after you read this fascinating little titbit. When you are kissing, you can transfer approximately 80 million bacteria across to your partner within the space of 10 seconds. So if you are having a proper make-out session, that number is going to go up and up and up. What is kind of sweet, however, is that the more you kiss someone, the more similar the types of bacteria in your mouth will become. After a while, you and your partner will have very common bacteria communities, so all of that swapping will start to be a little less varied. At least there’s a more romantic way of looking at this totally nasty statistic. Still, it might put you off the idea of kissing someone new entirely, since their bacteria are all weird and foreign to yours.

#8 Children Have Their Full Set Of Adult Teeth Already When you were a child, you started off with your baby teeth. These took their own time in coming through, which made you groggy and grumpy. But then eventually something started to happen to these teeth, too. You lost them one by one as new teeth pushed through in their place. You might have had some gaps without teeth for a while, or even had some double rows where the old ones hadn’t fallen out yet. But where did all of those teeth come from? Were they growing on the spot? The truth is that no, they were actually all lined up in your skull already, just waiting to drop through into their rightful places. Which is why children’s skulls look pretty gross, with an extra row of teeth that appear to be in the wrong place. Not that having a child’s skull in your hand isn’t nasty for all kinds of other reasons, too.

#9 You Swallow A Lot Of Bacteria Daily So all of that blood-saliva you have in your mouth is pretty gross. We also already know that there is a lot of bacteria up in there, and if you kissed someone recently, you have a big heaping of theirs as well as your own. Now be prepared to watch things go to a whole new level of ick. You swallow around 1.5 litres of saliva every day, some of which might find its way back around again. The rest goes into the stomach with the bacteria getting killed off by the acid there – or at least, most of it. The water in your spit is then repurposed for use elsewhere in the body. It’s quite an efficient system, but that doesn’t keep us from finding it absolutely disgusting. Just knowing you have all that nasty stuff in your mouth is bad enough, but knowing that you are swallowing it all down too is so much worse.

#10 Dairy Foods Build Up A Mucus In Your Throat You already know that there are some foods you shouldn’t eat if you want your breath to smell nice. Garlic is definitely a no-go, as is tuna. You will have those scents wafting from your mouth for hours after eating them. But there is one more food group you may not realize you should be avoiding: dairy. Milk products actually thicken your nasal mucus, as delightful as that sounds. What this can do is produce a sulphurous smell emanating from your mouth. Singers actually tend to avoid dairy so that they don’t thicken up that mucus, which keeps their voice clear. Other foods that you might wish to start avoiding include bread and pasta, because foods which are high in carbs promote the growth of more bacteria. Instead, foods with a high fibre content are good for avoiding extra smells on your breath that you didn’t expect. Who would have thought that milk would have an effect on the mucus in your nose – and that it in turn would make your breath start to smell bad?

#11 Germs Nest In Your Mouth And Cause Bad Breath 85% of cases of bad breath are caused by bad dental hygiene, according to figures released in the International Journal of Oral Science. Basically, when you have food that hasn’t been brushed away out of your mouth, food bacteria can latch onto that food and start to breed. Germs really love to live in warm and wet environments, just like the inside of your mouth, coincidentally enough. So when your breath starts to smell, it’s because of all of the bacteria breeding and multiplying on the rotten food you haven’t brushed away yet. A lot of the bacteria don’t need oxygen and will gather at the back of your tongue, so be sure to give that an extra going-over. If you have that rotten-egg smell going on in your mouth, the sulphur compounds produced by the bacteria are to blame. Get rid of it as soon as possible and brush regularly to remove the rotting food fragments whenever you can.

#12 Dehydration Makes Your Mouth Rot We already know that getting dehydrated is pretty bad. You start to feel dizzy, your brain doesn’t function as well, and your organs even begin shutting down if you let it go on for long enough. But what happens to the inside of your mouth when you aren’t drinking enough water? First of all you stop producing as much saliva as normal, to save on the hydration for the rest of your body. The saliva stops washing away bacteria, and also stops protecting the cells inside your mouth. The cells which are no longer protected start to die off. Yes, when you are dehydrated, you are literally letting your own mouth rot. There’s no wonder that it starts to stink! If you are looking to keep your mouth healthy, as well as the rest of your body, then you should be drinking between 6 and 9 glasses of water a day.

#13 Tongue Infections Are Brutal Now let’s move on to what can happen if you let your mouth get infected. Specifically, we are talking about the tongue. If you ever want to get a piercing in your mouth, you need to be absolutely sure that you are having it done in a sterile environment. If you don’t, there’s a high risk of infection occurring. A tongue piercing in particular can have terrible results. You may have to have pieces of your tongue simply cut out to stop the infection from spreading or getting worse. Even if you don’t get infected, a tongue piercing can be pretty bad news. It’s a great place for bacteria to nestle and can prevent you from cleaning your tongue properly to get rid of them. You are also likely to end up with chipped front teeth, because even though they are the hardest part of your body, they aren’t built to be clinking against metal all the time.

#14 Your Mouth Is Home To More Bacteria Than The World’s Population How much bacteria would you estimate is living in your mouth at any given time? Not too much, right? After all, it doesn’t exactly feel crowded in there. Well, the truth is that you have more than the world’s population of people in bacteria in your mouth. There are around 20 billion microbes there at any one time. They love the cramped conditions, funnily enough, and not all of them are bad. Most of them are essential to your microbiome, so you shouldn’t be trying to kick them out any time soon. However, there are a few bad apples in there. What you basically want is for the good bacteria to be prevalent and the bad bacteria to be washed away as often as possible. If this doesn’t happen, the bad bacteria start to grow and take over. That’s when you end up with conditions such as gum disease and infections which could destroy your teeth, gums, and other parts of your mouth.

#15 Plaque Shelters Lots Of Nasty Bacteria There are more than 600 types of bacteria in the mouth in general, but when you don’t brush your teeth often, that’s when things get seriously icky. You may remember being taught that you have to brush your teeth to prevent the build-up of plaque. Plaque is definitely not something that you want to have hanging around, as it can lead directly to gum disease. How bad is it, exactly? Well, there are around 300 different species of bacteria that live in plaque. So in other words, half of the bacteria in your mouth could be in those deposits of plaque that you just can’t be bothered to brush away. It’s time to rethink your brushing policy, because once that plaque hardens into tartar, it’s much more difficult to get rid of. Not only that, but your oral health could be going downhill quicker than you can react to save your teeth.

Source: TheRichest