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Discussion on Grinding Glucosamine & ChonDrOitin
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Member:
wgillmor
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Posted on Monday, Feb 9, 2009 - 2:49 pm:
Unlike my horse, my wife's won't eat whole Glucosaine and ConDrOitin pills (human, from Costco.) We have been grinding them in coffee grinders. Unfortunately, the blades on two different Braun models have broken in the last two months.
Has anyone a recommendation for either a different brand or another device or method? Grinding by hand with a mortar & pestle is not an option.
Thanks,
Wiley
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Member:
karind10
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Posted on Monday, Feb 9, 2009 - 3:22 pm:
You can get a nut grinder cheap at Walmart, or a little more from a kitchen supply store. Get a hand crank, and use the 'fine' setting. Since they are made for grinding nuts, they hold up pretty well!
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Member:
mrose
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Posted on Monday, Feb 9, 2009 - 3:45 pm:
Have you tried pill crushers? I got one out of a equine catalogue, but think you can buy them at the drugstore also. They cost about $2-3. I think they work pretty good.
If all else fails, wrap the pills in a dish towel or fold in paper towels and smash with a hammer. It works on cardamon seeds, so should work on pills.
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Member:
leslie1
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Posted on Monday, Feb 9, 2009 - 4:50 pm:
I had that problem too...but if I ground them to a powder she wouldnt eat it either ( I guess it made the whole thing taste like off) so I used a pair of gardening shears/scissor type thing on them...cut the pills into 1/3's and fed it with my complete feed...It made the pieces the same size as the feed and she would eat them. Silly horse.
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Member:
tamarag
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Posted on Monday, Feb 9, 2009 - 6:47 pm:
I crush them up and mix them in a little molasses or Karo syrup...then I mix it in their grain. Works every time
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Member:
rtrotter
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Posted on Monday, Feb 9, 2009 - 7:04 pm:
Wiley,
I save my small SMZ pill bottles to use for dissolving pills, but any small bottle will probably do. I put the pills in and add hot water and let them sit for a while, then I add some lite pancake syrup, shake and pour on feed, voila, no crushing or grinding needed.
I usually set the medication up for the next meal, so I don't have to fuss with it later.
Rachelle
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Member:
quatro
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Posted on Monday, Feb 9, 2009 - 11:36 pm:
Hey Wiley, what is the dosage you give your horse. I have been looking at something to start Cody on. He is about 950-1000 lbs?
suz
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Member:
mrose
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 - 12:01 am:
Unless I misread this, the pills are for Wiley's wife not his horse! Of course, some of the suggestions like karo syrup might work for either one.
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Member:
wgillmor
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 - 12:46 am:
Sara,
No no, for my wife's horse not my wife. But she would like the Karo syrup idea (as I would.)
Suz,
We follow DrO's statement where he writes in the article above:
"Dosages which achieve levels of active ingredient closer to those which have been shown effective at reducing inflammation would be 10 mg/lb GL and 4 mg/lb CS. Notice the word closer, it is still questionable whether these dosages are effective but clinical studies suggest they are."
So, for a 1000lb horse, 10,000mg Glucosamine and 4,000mg ChonDrOitin. We buy combination Glucosamine and Chondoroitin and add straight Glucosamine to make up the difference. One thing to notice is that the pill bottles are labeled with the amount contained in two pills. So you will need twice as much as you first think.
All,
Many thanks for the great suggestions. I've ordered a pill crusher, and if that doesn't work (we both have older hands) we'll try the nut grinder. Rachelle's suggestion of dissolving the pills sounds good. The only problem would be that we board our horses and we would need to ask the barn to do this for us. They would, but we try to hold down on the special requests.
Thanks all,
Wiley
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Member:
stevens
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 - 9:37 am:
I've used a Braun coffee grinder for years to grind bute with no problem. I take the same Costco pills you mention myself which are pretty big. Maybe if you broke them up a little before using the coffee mill, it would be less work on the grinder and it would last longer.
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Member:
dres
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 - 10:15 am:
Wiley, have you cost out what this costs for you using the Costco brand per horse??
I feed my dog the pills from Costco, she could not move before them.. I use a equine brand for my horses but am wondering if the Costco and grinding would save me money? I would guess then that the quality would be better too..
Dr. O dissolving the pills for a few hours would that effect the quality of the pills?
On the first day God created horses, on the second day he painted them with spots..
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Member:
mrose
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 - 10:44 am:
I guess instead of more coffee I need new glasses! I read your original post several times and missed the 's after wife.
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Member:
paardex
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 - 12:34 pm:
I've crushed Regumate pills for years in a solid plastic [or alufoil] bag with a hammer[good to get rid of agression to ] No force needed.A little water and syrup[my horses loved honey] might make them softer?
Jos
PS Don't feel bad Sara I understood Wileys wife didn't want to take them though his horse did..
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Member:
wgillmor
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 - 12:42 pm:
Sara and Jos,
The first clause of the first sentence in my post is a non sequitur. I should have just written "My wife's horse won't eat..." and no one would have been confused. My tenth grade English teacher would have told me not to write that.
Ann,
We don't use equine brands of Glucosamine & ChonDrOitin, (or vitamins for that matter) because they have no USP verification of contents and potency. While USP does not have the force of law, it least it gives some independent assurance that I am getting what I pay for.
As to costs, 750 mg of GL and 600 mg of CS cost about $.12. 750 mg of CS costs about $.044. If I've done my arithmetic right, for a 1000lb horse that's five combination pills and 10 Glucosamine or about $6.50 per day.
Yikes. I should have computed this before. If I haven't made a mistake, paying for a vet call once a month for IV Legend would be cheaper and more likely to be effective. Will someone please check my arithmetic?
The big cost is the combo pills. Costco sells 190 pills of 750mg CL and 600Mg CS for $23.49. Does anyone know a lower cost source? Since the CS pills are cheap, cheap straight GL would do the trick.
Wiley
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Member:
paardex
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 - 12:55 pm:
Ha Wiley with me being a foreigner I first thought this was a weird way of plural[as in more of my wives]...
Jos
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Member:
wgillmor
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 - 1:12 pm:
Sorry, the arithmetic is all off. Five pills at 12 cents a pill is 60 cents. 10 pills at four cents a pill is 40 cents. So it that's a dollar a day.
Much more reasonable.
Wiley
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Member:
dres
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 - 1:28 pm:
YIKES... Wiley that is very expensive..
I use this product / Trisport and have them make the compound with 15,000. gluco as I have bigger horses,, they don't need a higher dose of MSM or conDrOitin.. The cost of my special compound is pennies to if i fed a additional scoop to all three.. I quit the legend IV, but do give Adequan every 4 weeks..
https://www.horsetech.com/trisport.htm#Quick%20Links%20to%20Product%20Pages
but.. i am always looking for even a cheaper way ..
On the first day God created horses, on the second day he painted them with spots..
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Member:
wgillmor
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 - 1:37 pm:
Ann,
Be sure you saw my correction. It's more like a dollar a day.
Wiley
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Member:
klowe
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 - 2:48 pm:
Wiley, with the bigger tablets like joint supplements or vitamin C, I use the blender setting for crushing ice. Like you, I tried the coffee grinder, which works fine on smaller pills, but I could tell just from the sound that the big tablets would break something or burn out the motor. The blender works very well, except sometimes you have to pick out larger chunks and re-grind them. Plus you can do bigger quanitities at once. I only use the coffee grinder now when I need to determine how much crushed stuff = how many tablets.
Kathy
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 - 5:09 pm:
Ann, I don't think so as there are products that come as suspensions but I would not leave them in water any longer than necessary.
DrO
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Member:
wgillmor
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Posted on Saturday, Feb 21, 2009 - 7:21 pm:
I thought I'd give an update on what we have tried.
We bought a pill crusher. Unfortunately the combination of large hard pills and old hands (both my wife's and mine) made this largely unusable.
Our next attempt was a Cuisinart Spice Grinder. The literature showed it grinding nutmeg, which is larger than the pills (but probably not as hard.) This has proven to be a much superior pill grinder to the coffee grinder. It zips trough 12 pills in seconds with no sign of labor. We don't know yet how well it will hold up -- I may be posting next week about how the blades broke or the motor burned out -- but at the moment we have nothing but praise for it.
As a side benefit, the grinding jar removes completely for easy cleaning and we can use it for spices as well (and for that matter, for coffee.)
Wiley
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Member:
mrose
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Posted on Saturday, Feb 21, 2009 - 7:53 pm:
Hi Wiley, sorry the pill crusher didn't work; your arthritis must be worse than mine. Hopefully, the spice grinder will hold up for awhile; nutmeg is about as hard as a rock!
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