Zoe Nesic's soothing day in nature took a dramatic turn when she got home. Photo / Zoe Nesic, Instagram
An Australian teen has gone viral after sharing the terrifying moment she discovered a massive leech on her ankle.
Zoe Nesic had been out walking at Stevenson Falls in Geelong and, when she came home afterwards, she felt "something fizzing" inside the sock on her right foot.
"I lifted my jeans and noticed a lump, my heart instantly dropped," Nesic told news.com.au.
"I managed to keep my cool long enough to turn on my flash but Snapchat has flash and I thought it would make for a great video."
In the video Nesic, 19, can be heard screaming in terror as she realises there is a well-fed leech attached to her ankle.
"Oh my god, what do I do?" she says as a man pulls her sock off and the leech falls off. "It's f***ing huge."
Nesic said while the leech "freaked" her out, the bite hadn't ended up being sore and instead felt "really itchy" afterwards.
"It wasn't painful at all," she said. "I did have an allergic reaction though, so my leg was swollen and there was a solid lump about the size of a 50 cent coin under the wound for a few days, it was really itchy."
Nesic was "happy to handle huntsmans and other spiders", but finding a leech had been something else.
"This one caught me off guard and freaked me out," she said.
The TikTok video has since chalked up over 15 million views, with people even duetting the footage with their reaction.
"Sometimes I know when a video is going to do well and I suspected this one would, but not to this extent," Nesic said.
"It's been a bit crazy to see people from all around the world duetting it and using the sound."
The clip also has over 95,000 comments, with people calling her reaction "justified" and joking they "would've cut my foot off" or "passed out" if they made the same discovery.
"How [are] people still alive in Australia?" one person wrote.
"I would honestly croak and die," another commented.
According to St John Ambulance Victoria you should avoid pulling a leech off the skin when you find them – instead, apply heat or salt to make it move.
After the leech is removed you should treat the area like any bleeding wound and use a clean bandage to apply pressure to the area.
You should seek medical attention if the area becomes infected or an ulcer appears.
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