Chimp attacks after Lyme Disease Battle Police Finally Shoot Him

"In an interview, Capt. Richard Conklin of the Stamford Police said that Travis, 14, was believed to have Lyme disease, a tick-borne bacterial infection that in rare cases has been linked to psychosis, severe anxiety and delusional behavior. Travis had been in an agitated state most of the day Monday, and at one point his owner took the unusual step of giving him tea laced with Xanax in an attempt to calm him down, Capt. Conklin said.

“We’re trying to see if that factored into this,” he said of the Lyme disease.

Other than medication he might have been taking for the disease, Travis was not on any drugs and was not usually given Xanax, he added"



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/nyregion/18chimp.html

I feel really badly for everyone involved. In the book Cure Unknown, the author tells of a man who went insane and attacked his neighbor with a hatchet (or ax - something awful). The defense attorney said he had lyme but the man went to jail anyway.
I have had paradoxical reactions to anti-depressants. Instead of feeling calm and "happy", I felt like I had completely lost touch with reality. It was very scarry. What a sad story.

It only took one pill to give me this reaction. I really thought I might have to go to the emergency room, I was so scarred. I have also had adverse emotional reactions to drugs like ambien, which can cause irritation and even aggression. I figured out how badly it was affecting me when my horse bucked me off and one of my dogs growled at me. I am normally very easy going and calm but Ambien distorted my personality making me much more in your face about everything. When my horse shied at a bird, I forced him back to the scary spot with a "I've had enough of this BS!!!" I did not hurt him in any way but he sensed my anger and blew up bucking. Same thing with the dog. Chemicals affect people differently.
Bartonella causes irritation, anxiety, depression etc. This has hit me the last few months and thankfully I am now being treated for it. I have to control my impulses and tell myself it is only the bacteria and "this too will pass". But couple all those negative feelings with the mental fog and detachment from life and it is hard.

This is a wierd but true story. When I was about 4 years old a "gorilla" escaped from a dental school and came over the mountains down to the house where my family was living. He was on our roof making a thumping noise. We looked outside to see what was going on and we were surrounded by men with rifles. They shot him. I feel so badly for the way people treat animals and what happens to them. Even when they go crazy and harm humans, I feel the human is ultimately at fault. But in this case I really believe it was lyme disease and possibly the medication he received.

I also felt for the chimp and immediately thought Lyme could surely have played a big part in his turn about. Not to mention that miit was said that he lived a wonderful life for a child but he was NOT a child he did not belong in a home.

I really dislike monkeys.They tend to be violent. Remember what those two monkeys did to that man?
Lyme does cuase aggression we know that much. And can make men violent. I would sort of snap..and then go right back to calm.
I gave zanzx to my poodle on a airplane. He was freaking out. It did not work much. Thankfully the stuardess let me take the screaming thing out.
If the monkey had an acute case of lyme and most likely living in CT he has gotten it many times. It would make him a nasty little thing for sure.
My friends dogs who get it have their bad days too. My sweetest dog Toto who died of Lyme before x-mas. He was very nice, but if pressed or aggrevated he would bite one of my kids. Not enough to break the skin mind you. But he wanted to be left alone on his painful days. And if they were teasing him....he would react. We just made rules about not playing with him unless we knew how he felt that day.