Because disturbing things should be shared!

Disclaimer: I hate parasites. Blood, guts, broken bones, vomit, diarrhea, raging hemorrhagic fever, fine. Worms, maggots and other crawly things- no.

Unfortunately, our current block is about 25% parasitology, and we have a professor who, while being a wonderful lecturer, absolutely lives to make students squirm. And with some of the weird things out there... that's not hard to do.

Case in point- Dioctophyma renale, or the GIANT KIDNEY WORM. This worm is so huge, so disgusting and so freakish that it must always be written in all capital letters every time I write it, like a monster from a B horror movie. Holy cow. The only reason it does not get the title of Worst Thing Ever (which it would have to steal from Dermatobia hominis, the human bot fly) is that it's extremely rare in humans.

What could possibly make them this freakish? Well, the very name GIANT KIDNEY WORM should probably be a clue... but for the full effect I defer to the University of Guelph College of Vet Med, and their wonderful video about the removal of, I believe, 4 of these slimy, disgusting and utterly horrifying roundworms from a dog (like I'm going to watch it again to count). You have been warned.

GIANT KIDNEY WORMS!!!