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Best Way To Crush And Mix Tablets

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biscandmatt

biscandmatt

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i have to give mollie 1/4 of a tablet in the morning (her diuretic) - i crush it between two spoons and then tip the powder into this little tub i have, add water and then syringe it back up. i don't feel like she gets the whole lot though because some powder sticks to the spoon and then some little bits get left in the tub when i've syringed it up.

is there an easier way?! thanks :)
 
The same way as you to start with, between 2 spoons the mix the powder with fruit baby food. Any way I've done is crush the tablet sprinkle it onto a wet baby leaf - spinach, chard etc roll it up long ways then feed it to the piggy.
 
biscandmatt said:
i have to give mollie 1/4 of a tablet in the morning (her diuretic) - i crush it between two spoons and then tip the powder into this little tub i have, add water and then syringe it back up. i don't feel like she gets the whole lot though because some powder sticks to the spoon and then some little bits get left in the tub when i've syringed it up.

is there an easier way?! thanks :)
Click to expand...

I use a mortar and pestle for grinding up, measure up the amount of water carefully so that either half or a full 1 ml syringe will contain the exact dose, shake the little medicine bottle (from the vets) vigorously and only then syringe. It is not a job that you can hurry, but it can be done.
 
Midge&Panda said:
The same way as you to start with, between 2 spoons the mix the powder with fruit baby food. Any way I've done is crush the tablet sprinkle it onto a wet baby leaf - spinach, chard etc roll it up long ways then feed it to the piggy.
Click to expand...

thanks. the vet said i can mix it with 'something yummy' :)) but it has to be liquid not food. because she is fine being syringed and loves the taste of it, he agreed that water would be the best thing, especially as she needs the extra fluid aswell :)
 
Wiebke said:
I use a mortar and pestle for grinding up, measure up the amount of water carefully so that either half or a full 1 ml syringe will contain the exact dose, shake the little medicine bottle (from the vets) vigorously and only then syringe. It is not a job that you can hurry, but it can be done.
Click to expand...

ah yes, that could work better. the little tub i use i can't shake it up, just stir it with the end of the syringe so some little bits seem to be left. not loads but still, i want to make sure she gets the whole amount properly.

i'll get a spare brown meds bottle and try putting it in there and shaking it first, thanks :)
 
Not sure how the pro's do it, but I found with Ellies tablets if I cut them in quarters with a very sharp knife.
Then put the quarter into a milk carton lid or similar, added a drop of water to the tablet &the tablets seemed to dissolve mostly in the water anyway with little effort.
Syringe up the gloop &add required amount of water etc to make up to consistency required.
I found it easiest as a soggy weetabix consistency to syringe in. But Ellie was drinking loads &well hydrated
Thumb over end of syringe &shake if watery enough to mix it well.

Xx
 
GPTV said:
Not sure how the pro's do it, but I found with Ellies tablets if I cut them in quarters with a very sharp knife.
Then put the quarter into a milk carton lid or similar, added a drop of water to the tablet &the tablets seemed to dissolve mostly in the water anyway with little effort.
Syringe up the gloop &add required amount of water etc to make up to consistency required.
I found it easiest as a soggy weetabix consistency to syringe in. But Ellie was drinking loads &well hydrated
Thumb over end of syringe &shake if watery enough to mix it well.

Xx
Click to expand...

i do the same - use a knife to quarter them and then crush 1/4 between the spoons. the little plastic tub i have isn't much bigger than a milk carton lid actually. i will try adding a drop of water first and syringing straight away before adding more water to the syringe, see if that helps.

the tablets are really small so 1/4 is hardly anything. i can see the tiny bits floating in syringe with the water so maybe it isn't crushed enough?
 
she has cerenia tablets aswell but the vets mix these for me with some syrup stuff, but the vet didn't want me to do that with these ones. i think he wants me to crush and mix the cerenia myself aswell but i'm so rubbish at it that i asked for the syrup stuff this time. i might try next time though with tablets if i can get the hang of it. i have the most shaky hands and bad eyesight and i've already dropped the spoons twice wasting the 1/4 tablets! :roll:
 
@Wiebke i've just realised... did you mean you crush all the tablets at the beginning and put them in a brown meds bottle? but do the same amount of water for each tablet as you mix them? rather than just crush and mix the 1/4 tablet each time? hope that makes sense?!
 
biscandmatt said:
she has cerenia tablets aswell but the vets mix these for me with some syrup stuff, but the vet didn't want me to do that with these ones. i think he wants me to crush and mix the cerenia myself aswell but i'm so rubbish at it that i asked for the syrup stuff this time. i might try next time though with tablets if i can get the hang of it. i have the most shaky hands and bad eyesight and i've already dropped the spoons twice wasting the 1/4 tablets! :roll:
Click to expand...

Ellie had nelio about 6mm long &furosemide a bit smaller!
The nelio went more pap'py &the other just disintegrated really.

But it was fiddly like u say- my eyesight is ok, but had an injury so my fingers have a habit of doing their own thing :crazy:

Xx
 
GPTV said:
Ellie had nelio about 6mm long &furosemide a bit smaller!
The nelio went more pap'py &the other just disintegrated really.

But it was fiddly like you say my eyesight is ok, but had an injury so my fingers have a habit of doing their own thing :crazy:

Xx
Click to expand...

glad it's not just me who finds it fiddly! i am particularly bad at things like this though :roll: ..... and this :crazy: you used above was basically made for me! :))
 
:crazy: , :mal: , :doh: , :blink:
And :D
All sum me up quite nicely too! Lol!

Always aadds to the element of surprise when things dont go as u planned tho doesn't it ;)
Xx
 
GPTV said:
:crazy: , :mal: , :doh: , :blink:
And :D
All sum me up quite nicely too! Lol!

Always aadds to the element of surprise when things dont go as you planned tho doesn't it ;)
Xx
Click to expand...

:)) .... least you can smile about it all i suppose :)

i'd be so shocked if something ever went to plan :))
 
i smile, because half the time i have no idea whats going on ;)

i have a notepad on the fridge that says...
"If at first you do succeed, try not to look surprised!"
it has a guinea in a top hat on it too, just about sums me up! lol. xx
 
biscandmatt said:
@Wiebke i've just realised... did you mean you crush all the tablets at the beginning and put them in a brown meds bottle? but do the same amount of water for each tablet as you mix them? rather than just crush and mix the 1/4 tablet each time? hope that makes sense?!
Click to expand...

Depending on the tablet, I crush one or half a tablet, mix it with an easily divisible amount of water and keep the bottle in the fridge for the next day. Shake well before use. it works only for two days, but is it is easier than trying to chop up tiny tablets evenly.
 
Wiebke said:
Depending on the tablet, I crush one or half a tablet, mix it with an easily divisible amount of water and keep the bottle in the fridge for the next day. Shake well before use. it works only for two days, but is it is easier than trying to chop up tiny tablets evenly.
Click to expand...

this sounds like it would make things easier, even for a couple of days so will definitely try it :)
 
Some tablets crush/cut easier than others. I know some forum members use a pill cutter. I've tried the two spoons method but the result can be a bit lumpy.
So when giving tablets, I now always use a pestle and mortar as this is the only way you can get a finely ground powder and ensure even and correct dosing.
In your example, I would grind one tablet to a fine powder, then add 4ml of water uing a syringe (and rinse the powder off the pestle in the process), then use the syringe to mix/agitate the powder into a solution making sure the powder doesn't collect around the edges. I then syringe the whole lot in a brown meds bottle and store in the firdge. I would store the solution no more than 3-4 days and the time may be shortert or longer depending upon the stability of the drug once mixed with water (some lose activity more quickly than others)

For 1/4 tablet, the dose of the solution is therefore 1ml (Shake bottle well beforehand)

For any type of meds involving tablet crushing and mixing wiith water there is always going to be some wastage so dosing is not as accurate as if you use a pre-dispensed liquid drug that retains its activity better during storage. The trick is always to balance how much water to add to ensure you can get a reasonably accurate concentration of dissolved powder. ...vs the amount required to give the actual dose accurately. (I tend to work at a dose being 0.5-1ml ) vs how long your "stock" solution will need to be stored for.
HTH
x .
 
What worked well for me was to use a very sharp knife to make the initial cuts, then to crush the portion I am to use between two spoons, as mentioned here.
Then add a bit of Supreme science recovery powder, mix it with a little boiled and cooled water and this gives a paste. I then use a syringe but only to scoop it up, I don't actually suck the mixture into the syringe - I find a syringe tip makes for a god piggy-sized spoon basically. I've yet to have a piggy who doesn't like the Supreme Science recovery food, and it hides the taste of tablets well. They will often take the scooped bits from the syringe-tip very easily, or some will even lick the mixture off a human spoon. x
 
thank you for all the tips. i crushed a full tablet today between the spoons (but agree that it seems more 'lumpy' than powdery) so will be getting a pestle and mortar, and mixed it with water (0.5ml per 1/4 tablet seemed fine) and then syringed up 0.5ml. it did seem alot better mixing a bigger amount and shaking it :)
 
biscandmatt said:
thank you for all the tips. i crushed a full tablet today between the spoons (but agree that it seems more 'lumpy' than powdery) so will be getting a pestle and mortar, and mixed it with water (0.5ml per 1/4 tablet seemed fine) and then syringed up 0.5ml. it did seem alot better mixing a bigger amount and shaking it :)
Click to expand...

That is what I usually do.
 
i have a pill crusher but it doesn't work very well with these tablets for some reason. a sharp knife seems to cut them well without crumbling them! :)
 
:/ Yeah I know what you mean, they do crumble tablets a tad, I can't take whole tablets so have to chop them and they end up in bits lol.
 
Kerrie74 said:
:/ Yeah I know what you mean, they do crumble tablets a tad, I can't take whole tablets so have to chop them and they end up in bits lol.
Click to expand...

:)) i used to do that. but then i saw my nan take all hers in one go and she didn't choke so decided to risk it and have done it since! i take so many i may aswell :roll: :))
 
I used to take mine in one go but then I started having problems with swallowing :/ Not sure if it's the allergies or the Fibromyalgia doing it.
 
i now have a brand new brown medicine bottle for mollie's diuretic tablets. exciting times :))

i'm not sure whether to make up half a table at a time or a full one. half will obviously mean it will last two days, so one day old water in the fridge - the full lot will mean three day old water in the fridge....

has anyone else found that their piggy loves the taste of the diuretic? mollie loves it almost as much as metacam :))
 
I used to make enough of Tango's glucosamine solution to last for 3 days in the fridge and never had any issues.

My method of tablet division was to crush them with the flat of a large knife blade... felt a bit Walter White! That was for the large glucosamine tablets though, when we had to divide tramadol that was really difficult as the tablets were so tiny and we needed to make sure he took all of them so couldn't risk grinding and mixing with fluid or sprinkling on veg - cutting them with a knife never gave even results and they often crumbled. will definitely get a pill cutter if we have to do down that route again!
 
i decided to start off with making up half at a time and seeing how we go. seems ok so far. the tablets are quite small but luckily they don't crumble when cut like some have done in the past. it's very annoying when they do that! especially when you're trying to get an exact amount!

making half i found i had to use 1ml water per 1/4 tablet though but luckily mollie is fine having it with that much, and any extra water she can get will be great for her. she absolutely loves the taste of the 'tablet water' though! not sure why but she drinks it herself from the syringe quite quickly and then bites the syringe to pull it further in her mouth :)) i think she definitely knows it's helping her :luv:
 
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