A 32-year-old woman presented at an emergency department with an abdomen so distended that medical staff immediately asked her how far along she was in her pregnancy. The woman, however, was not pregnant. A medical professional detailed the unusual case in a TikTok video, explaining that what appeared to be a late-term pregnancy was actually caused by a parasitic tapeworm infection.
The video shows a woman in grey scrubs speaking from inside a car. She begins by issuing a direct warning: “Do not let your dog lick your mouth. I’m serious.” She then recounts the case of the patient who came in complaining of abdominal pain. The speaker described the patient as looking “like 8 to 9 months pregnant. Unmistakably pregnant.” Despite her appearance, the patient insisted she was not pregnant.
To confirm, the medical team ran a urine pregnancy test, which came back negative. They then performed a blood test to check for pregnancy hormones. The speaker stated that the blood test result was “less than 1,” indicating the patient was “definitely not pregnant.” The patient had reported that her abdomen had been slowly growing larger over the past year, along with nausea, pain, and a feeling of bloating. She also mentioned feeling full after small meals and losing weight, even as her belly expanded.
A massive cystic structure was found in the patient’s liver
Despite the patient’s stable vital signs, the examination revealed a severely distended and taut abdomen. An ultrasound was performed, which the speaker said showed “we don’t see a baby. Nope.” Instead, the imaging revealed a “massive cystic structure taking up a huge portion of her abdominal cavity.” The speaker displayed four ultrasound images on screen, showing a large, complex mass with multiple internal compartments.
A subsequent CT scan identified an “enormous 25-centimeter lesion in the right lobe of her liver.” The lesion was described as being so large that it displaced her bowel and other organs, much like a pregnancy would. The speaker explained that the cysts were not empty; they contained smaller internal structures. “Imagine this big ball filled with littler balls,” she said, referring to images from the scan. These internal structures were identified as “daughter cysts.”
Further investigation led to a diagnosis of cystic echinococcosis, also known as a hydatid cyst. The speaker identified the cause as Echinococcus granulosus, a parasitic tapeworm. She displayed an image of a tapeworm and a magnified view of the parasite. The diagnosis prompted a key question to the patient: “hey, do you have any dogs?” The patient reportedly replied, “yeah, my dog is my life. He’s my literal baby,” and explained that the dog sleeps in her bed and frequently licks her face and mouth.
The video includes a diagram from the CDC illustrating the parasite’s lifecycle. The speaker explained that dogs can be definitive hosts for the adult tapeworms, which live in their intestines and shed microscopic eggs in their feces. Humans can accidentally ingest these eggs through fecal-oral transmission. Once ingested, the larvae can penetrate the intestinal wall, enter circulation, and typically settle in the liver, where they slowly form massive cysts over years.
The speaker emphasized the serious risks associated with these cysts. She stated that they can grow for a long time without detection. Furthermore, surgical removal is extremely delicate. “You don’t just stick a needle in, suck it out, and be done with it,” she warned. Spilling the cyst contents during surgery could spread parasite particles throughout the abdomen, potentially causing severe damage to other organs and possibly triggering life-threatening anaphylactic reactions.
Due to these risks, specialists from infectious diseases and hepatobiliary surgery were involved. The patient underwent a definitive surgery to carefully remove the cysts without spilling their contents. She was also treated with the antiparasitic medication albendazole before and after the procedure to reduce parasite viability. The speaker concluded that after the surgery and recovery, “her pregnant belly goes away.”
The video ends with the speaker reiterating her initial advice. “Please stop letting your animals lick your face,” she said. “Your dog licks its own butt. Infections like this are transmitted in poop.” She added that while not every dog can transmit tapeworms, “The fact that it can, for me, makes it not worth it.” The warning about animal-borne infections extends to other unexpected dangers, as one family’s safety was ensured by their dogs’ unusual middle-of-the-night barking.
The video’s caption reads: “Don’t let your dog kiss your mouth. 😳 9 months pregnant patient… wasn’t pregnant at all.”
The video sparked discussion in the comments section, with viewers sharing their reactions. One commenter wrote, “So many dog owners will die on the ‘a dogs mouth is cleaner than a humans’ hill 🙄.” Another stated, “People let their dogs lick their baby’s face. So disgusting.” A third comment read, “as soon as you said she wasn’t pregnant I knew it was tapeworms. seriously don’t have a dog lick your face and wash your hands.”
