My husband takes half of a pill, and I was having so much trouble with the cutter that I bought from the Pharmacy. It would cut the pill, but lots of times it crumbled into pieces instead of splitting it in half. I mentioned this to my Pharmacist, and he gave me this simple, but effective way.
Take about 3 playing cards from a deck, and place them on a flat surface. Using the photos as your guide, place the pill with the dividing mark on the straight edge of the card stack. Next, with your left index finger, hold the left edge of the pill in place while you press the right edge with your right index finger.
This works almost 100% of the time. It will work best if the pill is flat.
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This makes little sense to me, and I tried. Sorry. But hey, I'm glad it worked for you, those cutters at the pharmacy do not work very well and using a knife is just out of the question.
Your sharp French knife (large knife) will cut a pill but start with the edge and roll the knife down. Dont try all at once.
I get it and if it works well, I might even glue three cards together for a permanent pill-splitter! Thanks so much for the tip!
Thanks for the card idea. Pill splitters do seem to be a waste of money. I do a similar thing with my mom's caplets. they're just a tad too big and breaking them makes her get a little more fluid (she's on thickened liquids & doesn't like it).
Those thickened liquids are awful! My dad had to be on them for a while. Never has that man begged so for a bottle of water! I like your pill-splitting idea - seems it should work well for larger, round pills.
I got excited seeing the title for this tip, because I need to quarter Lasix (Furosemide) pills for my cat. Those are the tiniest, most incorrigible, crumble-prone pills I've ever encountered!
Anyway, my search goes on. Pill splitters stink for them; the thinnest knives we own and razor blades are worse.
Thankfully, this last batch came pre-split...maybe they heard my loud lamenting from miles away?
Have you tried liquid Lasix? I took tht for a few years when I couldn't use the pills because of allergens.
An old credit card, with one side cut with scissors to get rid of age worn, rounded edges, works even better than a stack of playing cards. Beats the silly blade cutters from the pharmacy 100:1!
I have used an old credit card for that for many years. Works well for me. A flush cutting side cutter works well too.
OMG my son takes one particular medication that has to be halved and I couldn't for the life of me get them to split evenly without crumbling. This particular medication has to be exactly half, an overdose could have serious implications.
I have to split a pill that unfortunately does not have a ridge in the middle. I use a single edge razor blade & it works out well. Sometimes it crumbles a smidgeon but all in all it works fine. You learn that perfection sometimes does not happen.
joesgirl
What a fantastic idea! This worked SO much better than any pill cutter I've ever tried. If you want to split a tablet into two pieces, without little pieces & powder everywhere, try this idea!
I use a gift card instead of the playing cards. It works great. It has a rather sharp edge and you don't have a stack of cards. I just use an old Starbucks card.
I tried it.. thank you. It worked very well
I tried it and this works so well! Awesome idea! Thank you!
Thank you!! I have been shattering pills for days and thought, there has to be a better way!! And this worked perfectly since the pill was too small to hold and snap in half. Great thinking!
Thats sounds good for me My dog Has to have one and a half pills a day for her hip dysplasia and I have trouble splitting them so I will be trying this out Thank you so much
You said you have three or four cards place the pill on that card like in the photo and then you push down and it should snap in half, I didn't understand at first but now I do
Thank you so much for posting this tip! It works!!! I used scrapbook adhesive to tape the 3 cards together. Quick, easy, even split without crushing.
After crumbling a few pills, i used a credit card. like the three card trick it worked like a charm. Thanks for the tip.
Now if we can just come up with something that will split pills or supplements, for that matter, without the little line indentation in the middle.
I have a couple of pill cutters that work pretty well. My pharmacy gave one to me when I was prescribed a half pill. Sometimes they crumble just a bit but not enough to matter.
The method mentioned here won't work with an unscored pill. So here's what I do for plls that are not scored, like low-dose asprin. Straighten out a staple as straight as possible and tape it to a table. Use a very sharp knife to score the pill on both sides...make sure there's a good enough groove in it.
WOW. I was skeptical, but figured why not try it out. And it worked! Even with a non-scored tablet that was very crumbly in the pill splitter. Thank you, it is kind of you to post this solution online so others can try it.
Another option offered to me by a young pharmacy intern is to turn the scored side down and snap it upwards. I've never tried it with unscored pills but works fine with scored pills, especially oval shapes.
I half an oval pill for Parkinson's Disease. I have found a small pair of very sharp scissors work best for me. I hold pill between thumb and index finger then cut. My pill is not scored so getting exact dosage is difficult. I often match larger cutting with smaller cuttings to get near the exact dosage for the day.
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