Splitting Spilt Pills

June 1, 2024 4:14 AM

I need to split pills into quarters. They're easy to halve, but when I use a pill splitter to halve those halves, frequently the cut will veer to one side, leaving me with one small "half" and one large "half". How can I do this better - with an X-Acto knife? The pills are oval and the upper and lower sides are gently curved (vs flat) - e.g.. Unfortunately a lower dose isn't available, and I don't have access to a compounding pharmacy.
posted by my log does not judge to Health & Fitness (11 answers total)

What kind of splitter do you have? I had this problem and switched to the equadose, and it works much better.

That said, I’m dealing with flat pills, so I’m not sure if you’d have the same problem with it as well. It’s worth checking out though, because it uses a completely different mechanism.
posted by umbú at 4:17 AM on June 1 [5 favorites]

What happens if you make the “second” cut (the one not along the line), first?
posted by raccoon409 at 4:29 AM on June 1 [5 favorites]

Before I split my pill along the provoided line, I make a score mark where my second score will be. I've used a box cutter or an exacto knife with success. Then I do my first score and proceed to cut both of those halves. Success rate of about 95 percent.
posted by Czjewel at 4:59 AM on June 1 [5 favorites]

Czjewel has it. Prescore before snapping in half.

You will also find the cut to be more accurate on one side (with the mark) or the other (without), depending on which side was the mould and which the piston. Once you figure out which side is easier to cut from, always cut from that side -- it makes a difference.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:56 AM on June 1 [3 favorites]

I used to crush up melatonin and mix it with a teaspoon of coffee whitener (or 3 pills per tablespoon etc.). Then I'd just take a scoop with a 1/4 tsp measuring spoon. I found it so much easier than trying to manage itty bitty pill shards.
posted by i_mean_come_on_now at 6:24 AM on June 1

I've had good success with a plastic cutting board (so a relatively rough grippy surface) and a sharp knife, using the knife in the same way a splitter's blade comes down by setting the tip against the board at a ~30° angle and then hinging the handle down to crack the pill along a score line as described. The pill has to be fairly close to the pivot point but once you find the best spot it goes quickly and I'd do the whole bottle at once and be done with it.
posted by teremala at 7:04 AM on June 1

I quarter oval pills. They’re fairly large, maybe half an inch long? I use scissors and cut the ends off, then cut the big middle piece in half. My dosage doesn’t need to be exact, and if the ends come off too big I sometimes go with thirds instead of quarters.
posted by rikschell at 8:44 AM on June 1 [1 favorite]

A milligram scale is my solution, because there are some that are just impossible to split evenly, no matter what. I hack at them with the splitter, put the shards in a labeled container (last month's rx bottle is perfect for this), and use the milligram scale to measure out an even dose.
posted by jocelmeow at 8:46 AM on June 1 [4 favorites]

Came in to recommend a milligram scale. Crush IT and measure.
posted by 15L06 at 10:13 AM on June 1

Take the bigger half, get a nail file, file it down
posted by cotton dress sock at 5:07 PM on June 1

Ugh, this is me (cat doses of generic human medication). I've been making do with snapping the halves as cleanly as I can manage (pill cutters just destroy the pills). If I really fuck up, I use a razor blade to shave pill powder off the larger quarter until the quantities are more or less even (all of the dose goes inside a split cat treat with a mushy filling which I can use to mop up excess powder).

Thanks for the pre-scoring tip; I'm definitely going to try that -- it should help with the snapping.
posted by confluency at 12:37 AM on June 2