My DH has started not swallowing his pills but just keeping them in his mouth and chewing them. I think I'm going to have to start crushing and putting them in his food. How do you crush the pills. I think it would take a hammer to crush some of them. There must be an easier way.
Dazed most pharmacies have a pill crusher they sell. I got my first one at CVS and the second at Walmart (much cheaper) but beware, they do not crush all pills into a powder-there are some small "lumps" left. Of course I'm referring to pills (without coatings) not capsules. For capsules I would just open them an dump the contents into applesauce or yogurt. For the others, ask the doctor if the med is available in liquid form. Many are but you may need a compounding pharmacy and my personal experience is those are hard to find these days. Your PCP or other doctor's office should be able to help you with the liquid forms and where to buy them.
I always used a mortar and pestle that we received as a wedding present many years ago. Compounding pharmacies are good but they are very expensive - I had to pay $42 for my cat's liquid prozac, which would have cost less than $10 in a pill.
One thing to be careful about is that you should not crush time-release formulations of medications. If you did that, your husband would get the entire dose all at once. (That is why the narcotic OxyContin was so subject to abuse - it was a time-release formulation of oxycodone and addicts would crush it so they could get a huge dose all at once.)
Myrtle brings up a great point...any time release med should NOT be crushed. My husband was on Seroquel XR and the doctor advised it could not or should not be crushed. Another doctor told me that once you crush it, it's the same as giving a single dose (e.g., 200 mg time released crushed is like giving 200 mg at one time.) Since my husband had been on the full dose previous to the time release and I had the time released pills unused, he told me to crush them. This was because the time release wasn't as effective as the single dose.
I have to crush DW's pills and put them in apple sauce. I got the crusher at the pharmacy, and then checked with them to be sure it was OK to crush. One pill for her diabetes would not crush. One day she still had it in her mouth two hours later. I got her doctor to switch to a different one that could be crushed.
I used a pill splitter but did not know there were pill crushers. I would cover a larger (soup sized) spoon with a paper towel and then crush the med or meds in a bowl before adding the food. My husband was very partial to ice cream but not always finish yogurt or applesauce. Sometimes I would add cinnamon sugar to applesauce but mostly just stayed with the ice cream.
myrtle,
One of my cats takes fluoxetine too. I have the script filled at Target because my health plan pharmacy won't fill for a companion animal. The charge is $10 per month. I split the pill in half and then place it and the other med he takes in a Pill Pocket. Have you ever tried them? My veterinarian sells them but they are less expensive through wag.com and drugstore.com. They come in different flavors: chicken is what my guy prefers. I think they must taste okay since that kitty as well as the others think they are treats. They are by Greenies.
My husband started to not want to swallow his pills and refused to do so. So, I put all the pills in a small dish with milk to soak for about half an hour and then dump them in his bran flakes at breakfast. There is usually bueberries or bananas added so they are well hidden. I open the capsule for his reminyl and soak the 3 small pills. He eats all his cereal and no more issues about pills. For the serequol, I crush one between two teaspoons and hide it in peanut butter or cream cheese spread. He never knows he is taking pills.