Limb Strength and Efficacy of Strength Rehabilitation on an American Alligator

Abstract

Several studies have looked at muscular strength in the jaws of crocodilians but there are little published data that examine the direct measurement of muscular strength in the limbs of crocodilians. When an Alligator mississippiensis was surrendered to the Phoenix Herpetological Society (PHS) with clear physical deficits, such as malnutrition and severe muscle atrophy, this subject was a suitable candidate for rehabilitation. We took this opportunity to measure the limb strength in healthy alligators over a range of sizes to assess the efficacy of the rehabilitation protocol we created for our afflicted alligator. Human physical therapy and companion animal rehabilitation are common and growing practices, but zoo animal rehabilitation is a relatively nascent field with very little published data. We designed rehabilitation exercises based on companion animal medicine.Three aspects of body strength and condition were compared: grip strength, limb strength, and body measurements. Grip strength was measured with an incline board by placing the alligators on an incline and measuring the angle before they slip; correlating angle with grip strength. Limb strength was measured by placed a cuff at the base of the tail and pulling the subject from behind and encouraging the subject to walk forward. Resistance was measured in Newtons. We tested alligators ranging from 74.1 cm to 114.4 cm allowing us to distinguish between growth related strength increases and our rehabilitation success.Data on normal alligators indicate an increase in limb strength with increasing size, however, with grip strength there is no indication that there is an increase with increasing size. Data from our rehabilitated subject indicate grip strength was far below standard levels initially, but is rapidly approaching normal levels. Limb strength was initially on the lower end of the normal levels for alligators smaller in size, and her growth in strength parallels that of the normal alligators. Rehabilitation is successful in companion animals and shows some degree of success in alligators. However, further investigation is required to explore why our limb strength results did not demonstrated a similar level of success to grip strength results. Rehabilitation is a rapidly growing field in both the human and veterinary profession; with our research we hope to expand current knowledge of alligator rehabilitation and improve biomechanical knowledge of alligator strength.Support or Funding InformationBiomedical Science Program at Midwestern University at Glendale, AZThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.