Database handle question in Sybperl

I am using the latest version of Sybase::CTlib.

I have a piece of code that will have a database handle passed to it.

I want to be able to check the status of the handle.  I need to know if
it is connected, has any pending requests, is dead or deadlocked and
anything else of use before I try to feed new requests to it.  

So far, there seems to be little in the documentation on how to get the
status of a database handle.  In the debugger, the handle seems to point
to Sybase::CTlib with points to an empty hash.  (I am not certain if
this is a tied handle or what.

Any hints on how to determine the status of a handle?

I would use the DBD::Sybase code, but it requires rebuilding Perl and
all associated modules on my current machine.  (I have an AIX box with a
Perl built with 64-bit ints.  DBI does not like that, due to a pointer
mismatch.)