HOW TO DO CPR ON AN ALLIGATOR

Not quite dead. For several weeks, the adult male alligator at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio had been treated by veterinarians for respiratory disease. So it was no enormous surprise to the reptile keepers when they checked on him July 9 and found him unconscious and not breathing. What the keepers did next, however, was certainly surprising to the nearby crowd of zoo-goers: alligator CPR.

Q Did it work?

A No. The middle-aged gator died. But it did raise some questions about the procedure. Was this the ultimate “jaws of life” situation — a human mouth wrapped around a giant, many-toothed, sometimes man-eating reptile’s snout? Nope, not at all.

Q So what is alligator CPR?

A Randy Junge, a veterinarian who is the zoo’s vicepresident of animal health, said alligator CPR consists of chest compressions only, because that’s the most important component of CPR. (Hands-only CPR, in fact, works on humans, too, and many people are now being trained in it.) “If you’re getting adequate compressions, you’re not only circulating the blood, but you’re expressing air out of the lungs,” Junge said. Mouth-to-mouth “is not necessary,” he said. That doesn’t make gator CPR easy, and you really shouldn’t try it at home. In Columbus, a team of four keepers hoisted the 136-kilogram alligator and turned him on his side to begin compressions, Junge said. Once the reptile was breathing again, he was rushed to the zoo’s hospital, where he was given intravenous fluid and emergency medications. A tube was inserted into his trachea to help him breathe. The gator was stable for about an hour before he again “declined,” Junge said.

Q Is this common?

A Respiratory diseases such as pneumonia are common among captive alligators, and it’s not clear why, Junge said. In his 30 years as a zoo vet, Junge said he has performed CPR on so many animals that no such experience really stands out his memory. “The procedure is pretty much the same whether it’s a person or a mouse or an alligator,” he said.

Q So no mouth-to-mouth on animals?

A You can give mouth-tosnout in some cases — if your dog stops breathing, for example. In most cases, vets say, you lay the dog on its right side, though barrelchested canines like bulldogs can be laid on their backs. After a series of chest compressions above the heart, you make sure the dog’s muzzle is tightly closed, place your mouth around its nose and blow into its nostrils. There’s a handy infographic on trudog.com. And if you are a very intrepid wildlife biologist, you can do mouth-to-mouth on a turtle. David Steen, an Auburn University scientist, did just that in 2014, and it worked.