Splitting up capsules of medication/probiotics

[tpapictures]

Question for those of you using things like s. boulardii and making your own capsules...

We got a kit with several tools/spoons that help fill capsules easily instead of aiming just with your hands. We don't need to pill our cat, but we sprinkle the small amount we use into his food at an amount he'll not reject. We use a few empty capsules to store the quarter capsule we need at a time. But my question is, what do those of you who make your own capsules do to actually, mechanically, brush up and scoop up with little lab spoons the medication without losing any? It's very hard picking up enough powder on a tray and not leaving any behind. I understand there are machines that do 50 at a time eliminating the need to scoop anything but as I said we don't pill him so we have no need to produce 50 capsules. We also don't use the boulardii that frequently for that intricate of a capsule production system. Just thought we'd ask what others do if they use boulardii or other medication powders like us.

 

[Caspers Human]

What is the texture of the powder you are trying to dispense? Is it more like salt or more like powdered sugar? What amount of powder do you need? If you're filling gelatin capsules, it can't be much more than an fraction of a teaspoon. Can it?

Do you know that they sell small, fractional measuring spoons? Your common measuring spoons come in half and quarter teaspoons but you can get them even smaller. There is a "Dash" spoon that measures out 1/8 tsp. There is a "Pinch" spoon that measures 1/16 tsp. and a "Smidgen" spoon that measures 1/32 tsp.

Why not recalculate your recipe for Dashes, Pinches or Smidgens? You'd save yourself a lot of time and trouble. Plus, you'd save money when you don't have to buy gelatin capsules that you're just going to throw away, anyhow.

If the powder you're trying to measure has a fairly fine texture, you might even be able to use a drinking straw to poke into the powder container. Some of the powder will go up, inside the straw and all you need to do is tap it out or blow it out.

I worked in a chemistry lab where they measured out substances like potassium-gold cyanide. The stuff had the texture of salt crystals. A jar of K-AuCN the size of a salt shaker cost $25,000! We measured it out with stainless steel spatulas and high precision laboratory scales that could measure to a microgram. (1/1000 of a milligram!) If you accidentally dropped one extra crystal on the scale, you'd be over the limit and you'd have to start all over.

The point of my story is that I don't think you need to work to such high precision and I think it would save a lot of time and trouble to just use small measuring spoons.

 

[tabbytom]

I give S Boulardii to my boy twice as day when he has his meals.

I empty the 5 capsules of S Boulardii each time into a small plastic bottle and I use a disposable coffee stirrer and I get the one with the smallest scoop and I give a flat scoop each time of the twice a day dosage.

This is the disposable stirrer I use and I re-use the stirrer although it’s disposable.

 

[tpapictures]

Sorry, let me be more precise...
What I'm saying is we got sick of taking one capsule of S. Boulardii (a ground suger type texture, not a powder but more like Splenda) and trying to split it into 4 just by tipping back and forth into empty capsules. So we got these tools. The problem is you want to kind of empty out the capsule and then scoop it up and tip it into an empty capsule with one of the tools/spoons. Why into 4 capsules if we're not pilling? Just so you have 4 sealed, organised, ready to use, protected doses that you can just empty and dump when feeding. But that transferring from this scale's tray to the capsule even with these tools is difficult without leaving tons of grains behind unscooped that you just can't "scoop" up from the plastic tray that comes with our scale. You can't pick it up and bend it like silicone, you can't scrape up against it as it if was flexible plastic, etc. So, I was wondering, is there some other tool that ensures you can collect ALL the grains once on a "tray" of sorts?
Does that description help?

 

[Caspers Human]

Why not do it like the way people in the 80's used to lay out lines of coke?

Dump the powder out onto a glass plate and use a card to divide it up into equal lots. Or use a mirror and a razor blade if you want to do it "Disco Style."

Scoop the powder into a pile in the center of the plate, use the card to divide the pile in half then divide the halves in half. Don't bother putting the unused portion back into capsules. Just scoop it into a glass test tube and put a stopper on it. They make small test tubes that only hold 10 ml. (10 ml. is approximately 2 tsp.) You can even find plastic test tubes with built-in snap tops.

You could even dump out a dozen or so capsules into a test tube then dispense the amount you need from there.