O’Malley went to the vet this morning. It turns out he just has feather cysts, not lipomas. This is good news! But he did not enjoy having the cysts lanced at all. After some valium he was at least easier to handle.

He probably got the 4-5 cysts by landing on his keel while jumping off the deck, right when feathers were growing in… so they grew inward instead of outward. Now I get to clean the cysts twice a day myself for about a week until they heal – Merry Christmas to me!

Hopefully the cysts won’t return again. If they do, the vet will do a little skin surgery on him to prevent the feathers from growing wrong in the future.

O’Malley weighs 5.94kg or 13.09lbs, which is about a half-pound less than he weighed a year ago. This is a good weight for him.