Pill Splitting - cautionary tale

Valve Replacement Forums

Help Support Valve Replacement Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Protimenow

VR.org Supporter
Supporting Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2010
Messages
4,844
Location
California
I usually take 7 mg of warfarin daily. To do this, I split a 10 mg and a 4 mg pill and take one half of each. Simple.

I usually do this in a little used bathroom, and usually try to do it over a sink. I make sure that, after splitting the pills, I have 1/2 in each hand, and 1/2 goes back into the bottle, while the other half goes into me.

A couple days ago, I took my shih tzu to the groomer, and they called me a few hours after I dropped off, and told me that while she was being bathed, she exhaled a large clot of blood from her nose, and that her nose was bleeding.

When I was ready to pick her up, I called the groomer and told her I was on my way. She told me that her nose was still bleeding. I made an appointment with the vet.

After I picked my dog up, I took her straight to the vet. While in the car, she continued to exhale blood from her nose. She rested her head on my arm and left some nice bloody areas on my shirt (as if I value her less than the crummy shirt).

The vet examined her, found a bruise at the top of her eye, and put something into her nostril (probably to give a surface for clots to form). He asked if she had gotten into anything - poisons, etc., and I assured him that she hadn't.

He suspected that she may have been dropped or mistreated by the groomers. The groomer already told me that nothing had been done to her. We've been going there for years, without incident.

The vet gave her Vitamin K (as expected), an antibiotic and a steroid (to reduce swelling). When I got my dog home, my wife noticed some purplish blotches on her body - including one that was shaped like a thumb.

After a couple days, fortunately, she (the shih tzu - not my wife) seems to be much better. The nosebleed stopped. The blotches seem to be resolving.

Although there was no blood in her stool or urine, it sure SEEMS like she had gotten into some anticoagulant.

I'm concerned that she may have gone into the bathroom where I split my pills, and gotten some of the minuscule granules that may have dropped when I split my pills onto her nose. When she licked her nose, she dosed herself with MY warfarin.

SO -- just a warning; if you split your pills and have any animals around who may get into the room where your splitting is being done - be SURE your split them over a sink (or buy the correct dosages to begin with). Your pet's life may depend on it.
 
I worry about this on an almost clinically obsessive level because of my daughter. I have a strict routine that I follow when I'm taking my medication... down to washing my hands and logging the dose and even the particular cup that I use to chase them with water. I keep them in a very safe location too. It scares the hell out of me because she would not hesitate to put a random pill in her mouth like it were candy if I dropped one on the floor. The non-generic pills are especially colorful and enticingly shaped to attract young children.
 
SO -- just a warning; if you split your pills and have any animals around who may get into the room where your splitting is being done - be SURE your split them over a sink (or buy the correct dosages to begin with). Your pet's life may depend on it.

This applies also to any unsplit warfarin/Coumadin tablets. You can drop one on the floor, never notice it and voila! your fluffy white Persian cat has red splotches all over herself.

Glad your dog is OK now.

I usually refill my pillbox @ work -- I split the tabs and fill the compartments, then put the extra 1/2 of the 1 and 10mg tablets back in their respective bottles. If I do it at home, it's in the kitchen and I am very very careful.
 
About 3 weeks ago, I noticed that my cat, Molly, was batting something around and then attempt to eat but would spit it out!

So, I got down on the floor and noticed that what she had was one of my revatio pills that I must have dropped while filling my pill boxes! I thought I had heard something fall and I ran the vacuum shortly thereafter, and then I put it out of my mind.

The pill Molly had been playing with, was all wet but I guess it didn't taste all that good to her, and that's why she didn't eat it.

I guess a sure giveaway that she had eaten it would have been if she had started getting a bit too amorous! LOL! (just kidding!) :)

I'm a lot more careful now when I'm filling my pill boxes!!
 
This isn't really about the pets, or the kids, but I'd suggest a "friendly amendment" to your procedures: Since none of us is 100% accurate when we split pills, when I was splitting Warfarin pills I put both halves into a 7-compartment pill box rather than tossing the left-over cut half back into the pill bottle. Not only did that save me some cutting when the pills were new, it also ensured that any 55% or 60% "half" would soon be followed by the corresponding 45% or 40% "other half". (I also found an adorable little CIRCULAR 7-compartment pill box in a local dollar store, which fits in my vest pocket better than the usual straight ones, but that's another matter entirely!)

Mind you, "Do as I say and NOT as I do!" This week, while I'm tapering off on my Metoprolol, I'm taking my 50mg pills (originally rounded on both ends) that were all hand-snapped in half by my druggist (somewhat erratically) then tossed back into the bottle, and I'm doing my best to slice those erratic halves into half! 50% of them have a rounded end, and 50% don't, and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm getting 15-20% +/- variation in my 12-hour dosage. So far, so good! ;)
 
I've been careful with everything but the little fragments that drop 'somewhere' when I break the pills - and I usually break these pills at the indentation in the middle of the pill. Norm's advice is good - although I don't think I wind up with a 51% pill one day and a 49% pill for the next, it's a good idea to put the two halves into a dispenser for two consecutive days. I've gotten more careful to break the pills directly over the sink -- but the suggestion of doing it somewhere 'safer' is also a good one. For me, though, the front bathroom that is use is almost NEVER visited by my dogs -- so I'm not sure HOW (of if) she actually got part of a pill into her system. I'm tempted to give my vet a meter so he can test other critters with similar signs of being anticoagulated -- but I have no strips to give him, and he may have a bit of a learning curve. (However, if my dog ever shows symptoms again, I'll bring my InRatio and a strip or two so we can confirm what's happening -- assuming that a human 1.0 is equivalent to a canine 1.0)
 
I always sit at the breakfast bar when filling Jerry's pill boxes every Sat night. The warfarin is easy to break in half but there is residue left on the bar that I've never worried about; what I have worried about is dropping one on the floor and a toddler grandchild picking it up. Those days are in the past, but now we have a house puppy for the first time. He scavenges everything on the floor and I'm being extra careful about all Jerry's pills, BP included.
 
Back
Top