Best pill grinder for horse pills

[Renn_aissance]

My husband is a pharmacist. All questions about horse drugs go to him first. So I’ve confirmed that the medication’s potency will not be meaningfully impacted by grinding it well in advance, with peppermints, etc. At his hospital they use the Silent Knight and he thinks it would withstand the pills in question. I’m not sure about the plastic baggies. I prepack a week of supplements and meds in containers, so I would empty the baggie into his supplement cup. He thinks I can reuse the baggies multiple times. I’m not big on single use plastics so it probably depends on how many is “multiple.”

A manual grinder is an interesting idea and so is a blender. I have a Nutribullet, so that might have potential- I could get a smaller cup and a dedicated blade.

I am not going to sit down and crush 140 pills a day once a week with a mortar and pestle or a rolling pin. If I have to buy a new Target coffee grinder every two weeks I am still ahead financially over the powder, and then I have all kinds of spare parts for when the grinders break.

[ThreeWishes]

I use a manual grinder I got off Amazon for the 22 Zyrtec I use daily. Stupid question I guess but can your medication be compounded into a powder ?

[Simkie]

How many pills can the Silent Knight handle at once? It doesn’t look very big

There are “pill grinders” on Amazon that have the same form factor as a coffee grinder. Perhaps more durable?

There’s also this, same price range as the silent knight, but says it can do multiple pills, and does look larger:

https://www.tigermedical.com/Products/Pill-Crusher__TIGPCT001.aspx

[Renn_aissance]

@ThreeWishes

Stupid question I guess but can your medication be compounded into a powder ?

Yes. For $7 a dose, $14 a day. Which is why I’m shopping for a new grinder instead.

@Simkie

How many pills can the Silent Knight handle at once? It doesn’t look very big

The version being sold on Amazon doesn’t have a high capacity with something horse pill sized. Husband is going to check if there’s a commercial version that might do better.

[ThreeWishes]

Wow that sucks. Good luck. I personally hate the mortar and pestle route or any kind of rolling pin set up. I just look at all the crushed debris on the implements and worry about dosage and getting the full amount. Grinding in my experience is way easier than crushing. Crushing is sloppy.

[erinmeri]

@trubandloki

I realize reviews on either end of the spectrum are suspect…

I went and read the reviews on this unit and one of the complaints is it does not work well on large pills.

Hm. Worked well for me for large 500mg human pills I had to grind for cats to administer a cat-sized dose. Maybe they were soft? I don’t recall and it’s been a few years.

[clanter]

or any kind of rolling pin set up. I just look at all the crushed debris on the implements and worry about dosage and getting the full amount.

If the product is wrapped in a waxed paper then wrapped in cloth then smashed there is no direct contain with a rolling pin or whatever is used to smash the bigger pills into smaller particles that can be easily milled in powder

by the way Metformin will dissolve in water. Some owners dissolve it then syringe it into the mouth, either just in water or mixed with apple sauce, sugar free cordial or flavored yogurt

[ThreeWishes]

Sounds like a whole lot of work versus a pill grinder.

[ladipus]

Electric coffee grinder