Miniature Pinscher's Feet Smell Like Fritos Corn Chips

Many of you might have noticed that your Min Pins feet smell like a bag of Fritos corn chips! I actually kind of like the smell but if you are wondering why they smell that way I have listed a couple of reasons below.

• The fillers in the dog food are made with corn and salt, which make the dog smell like fritos because the dog can't digest veggies.  To reduce this smell, either get a higher quality food, or switch to prey-model-raw.
• Yeast in paws may cause a smell. You may not see the yeast at all but it is there, which is from the moisture that is trapped within the cracks of their paws.  Most dogs will take care of the problem by licking their paws.  To reduce this smell, I suggest wiping their paws down after walking outside.
• If your dog is paper trained and walks on the pee pad, that may cause a corn type of smell on the dogs feet.  Most dogs will take care of the problem by licking their paws.  To reduce this smell, I suggest wiping their paws down throughout the day.

Most of the time the corn chip smell is tolerable and really isn't a major concern when it comes to the health of the dog.  Like most Miniature Pinscher owners, I have actually grown to enjoy the smell and sometimes find myself hugging my furbaby and taking in a loving sniff of the corn chips.  Now on occasions my nose has encountered a nose full of rancid Cheese Puffs, which means it is time for a bath :-)

UPDATE:
Since Not Not has been on a new kibble that is a hypoallergenic dog food she no longer smells like Fritos.  I kind of miss my frito smelling pup, but I am glad she no longer has problems with itchy skin.

(I don't want to take a bath)

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Miniature Pinscher Seizure like Symptoms Could Mean Tick Disease

I had A BIG SCARE when Not Not was about a year old. One Saturday my friend was  playing around with "Not Not"(my min pin) and then she ran around the corner out of site and my friend heard a thump of some sort. When he looked at Not Not she was walking kind of dizzy like and then fell right over onto her side and lay there. I ran to her and pet and comforted her. after about a minute or so she got up slowly and then was back to her self it seemed like. I thought that maybe she ran into the wall and knocked the wind out of herself.

Then a couple days later in the morning as I was getting ready for work, Not Not was walking around and then jumped onto the bed. I told her to get down so she could go Potty. Well then she starts doing that dizzy drunk walk and falls onto her side and starts urinating. she couldn't move for what seemed like 2 minutes. the front half of her body seemed more responsive to me, but her back legs were limp and she didn't want to move. While she was having the episode she was panting really hard.

I took her to the vet and they were not certain if she was having seizures or not. they gave her some steroids to take in case she does have a concussion. they also tested her blood to see if she had another problem they told me about, but her test came back clear from that.

I felt really bad because i thought she had other episode I wasn't aware of because she had urinated in my bed which is rare and I fussed at her. since i didn't see when she did it I was thinking that maybe she had fell out again but i wasn't around when it happened and only noticed urination after it had happened.

She didn't shake or anything while having the episode, which is what I thought happened during seizures. she just fell right over and laid there breathing really hard and urinated. what a sad site :-(

The vet, neurologist and cardiologist never found anything wrong with her.  The last time I took her to the cardiologist, she said that Not Not's heart and vitals were fine except for a temperature and thought that maybe she had a tick related illness since she also had thick mucus in her eyes and was lethargic.  I looked on this site http://www.mirage-samoyeds.com/tick.htm and Not Not had some of the many symptoms listed along with seizure like symptoms. The tick related illness made since to me since I wasn't a good mommy and didn't have her on any tick prevention (only sprayed her couple times when we went outside).

So I called her vet and told them what the cardiologist said and asked if I could get the meds for that.  They agreed and allowed me to pick up the meds after work without bringing Not Not in to be retested.  The cardiologist only tested for 2 types of diseases (she didn't have those), but said there were many others to consider "rocky mountain" was one of them not tested for.

Basically we were running out of choices since they never found anything wrong with Not Not and when she started on the Meds she was running around causing trouble, less mucus in eyes and no fainting.

My Miniature Pinscher Has Itchy Skin

Not-Not is always scratching and I know that min pins sometimes have skin issues.  What most owners don't realize is that their min pin might be allergic to the food they eat.  About a year ago I noticed that Not-Not was breaking out in red rashes on her belly and under her arm/leg pits.  She was scratching a lot more and always licking her paws.  Because she had been eating the same food since she was a puppy I didn't even consider it could be her food.  The Vets told me to give her kids benadryl or they could do some expensive test to find out what was causing the breakouts.  Well I did a little digging around and read that Corn and Wheat are often, but not always, the culprits in a food allergy.  Your min pin can also be allergic to the beef, chicken or other protein source.  But corn and wheat allergies are showing up as common allergens the same way they're showing up for people. They're cheap fillers in pet food and a build up of them in your pet's body can cause an allergic reaction.  So I purchased a new kibble with No Corn and Wheat and guess what...no more red break outs.

So if you notice any of the following symptoms then please consider changing your miniature pinschers diet:

• Constant ear infections
• Ridiculous amounts of paw chewing/licking
• Red, irritated skin
• Upset tummy--all the time.
• Dry, itchy skin and dull coat (yes, both dry skin and red inflamed skin can be symptoms--confusing I  know--but you know what healthy skin looks like)
• Lots of dandruff and shedding a lot.

The A-Z Miniature Pinscher Handbook

20% of Dogs Suffer from a Dog Allergy: Could Yours be One?