Talk about trouble in paradise.
A Canadian couple brought something back from their Caribbean vacation that they didn't expect: worms in their feet.
CTV
reports
Katie Stephens and Eddie Zytner ended up with parasitic hookworms after a trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
They're now sounding a warning call to anyone headed down that way.
"For a lot of our trip, we found that we were scratching our feet quite a bit," Zytner told CTV. The pair had been staying at the IFA Villas Bavaro Resort in early January.
They just figured it was bug bites. "Sand fleas we had heard about so we kind of assumed it was that at first," he said.
But soon Zytner says his feet began to swell up. By the third weekend of January, the swelling was worse and bumps starting showing up on his toes. So, he went to the hospital, but doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with him.
A day later, Stephens' feet started to puff up.
When Stephens, 22, went to the hospital, a doctor who had recently treated a similar case came up with the reason: hookworms.
The CDC says the hookworm parasites are usually found in the intestines of dogs, cats and other wild animals. But they can enter human skin.
The couple told CTV they think they picked up the parasites while walking barefoot on the beach.
The doc prescribed Ivermectin, Stephens told CTV.
As if getting hookworms in your feet wasn't bad enough, the couple had more headaches, this time with their health insurance.
Read about it at CTV.