Maltipoo Health Problems: What Owners Should Watch For

Yes, Maltipoos do have health problems, and if your dog is showing any of the signs on this page, the right next step is a veterinary exam rather than waiting to see whether it settles. Treat laboured breathing, collapse, a seizure, pale or blue gums or sudden severe pain as an emergency and get to a veterinarian immediately.

A Maltipoo is a Maltese crossed with a Poodle, usually a Toy or Miniature Poodle. Both parents are small companion dogs, and small companion dogs share a predictable set of vulnerabilities: crowded teeth in a short jaw, delicate knees, a narrow windpipe, inherited eye conditions and degenerative heart valves later in life. Plenty of Maltipoos are sturdy, active little dogs who do well with routine care. Being prone to something is not the same as being destined for it, and results vary from dog to dog.

Here is the short version of what the breed is known to be prone to and what it looks like at home.

Body area	What Maltipoos are prone to	What owners notice	How urgent
Mouth	Periodontal disease, retained baby teeth, crowding	Bad breath, dropping food, pawing at the mouth, blood in the water bowl	Book a veterinary exam soon
Knees and legs	Luxating patella, joint strain, hip problems seen in toy breeds	Skipping a step, holding a back leg up briefly, bunny hopping, reluctance to jump	Exam soon; sooner if the dog cannot bear weight
Airway	Tracheal collapse, reverse sneezing, throat irritation	A dry honking cough, worse with excitement or collar pressure	Exam soon; emergency if breathing is laboured
Eyes	Inherited retinal disease, cataracts, dry eye, tear overflow	Cloudiness, squinting, discharge, bumping into things in dim light	Exam soon; same day if the eye is painful or red
Skin, ears, coat	Allergic skin disease, ear infections, matting	Paw licking, face rubbing, head shaking, odour from the ears	Exam soon
Heart	Degenerative mitral valve disease in older small dogs	A murmur found on exam, cough, tiring quickly, faster breathing at rest	Exam soon; emergency if breathing is fast and laboured at rest
Whole body	Low blood sugar in very small young dogs, seizures, liver shunt	Wobbliness, weakness, disorientation, poor growth	Emergency

Why a Maltese and Poodle mix is not automatically healthier

Owners often assume a crossbreed sidesteps inherited disease. Widening the gene pool can reduce the odds of some recessive conditions, but it only helps when the two parent breeds carry different problems. Maltese and Poodles are both small, fine boned companion dogs, so they overlap heavily on exactly the issues that matter: dental crowding, kneecaps that slip, tracheal cartilage that softens, tear duct and eye disorders, and valve changes in the heart with age.

So do Maltipoos have a lot of health problems? Not an unusual number for a toy sized dog. What they do have is a concentrated list, and most of it is manageable when it is caught early. Are Maltipoos prone to health problems? Yes, in the same way every purposefully small breed is prone to the consequences of being small.

The practical takeaway is that routine veterinary visits matter more in this breed than in a large, robust dog, because the early signs are easy to write off as personality. A dog who stopped jumping onto the sofa, who chews on one side, or who coughs when excited is telling you something specific.

Dental disease: where small breed trouble usually starts

Dental disease is the single issue almost every Maltipoo owner will face. The jaw is short, the teeth are full sized by comparison, and crowded teeth trap food and plaque along the gum line. Baby teeth sometimes fail to fall out and sit alongside the adult tooth, doubling the crowding.

What follows is gum inflammation, tartar, receding gums, loose teeth, and in some dogs an abscess at a tooth root that shows up as swelling under the eye. Because small breed jaws are thin, long running dental disease weakens the bone itself.

Signs worth a veterinary appointment include breath that has turned sour or metallic, chewing on one side, dropping kibble, pawing at the face, drooling more than usual, blood on a chew toy, or a sudden preference for soft food. Dogs rarely stop eating because of mouth pain, so do not use appetite as your test.

Your vet assesses the mouth awake, then recommends a cleaning under anaesthesia with dental x-rays when it is needed, since a large part of each tooth sits below the gum line where you cannot see it. At home, regular tooth brushing with a paste made for dogs is the backbone of prevention. Talk to your vet about which dental products are suitable for a mouth this small.

Knees and movement: luxating patella and joint strain

A luxating patella is a kneecap that slides out of its groove. It is one of the orthopaedic issues seen most in toy breeds, and the classic sign is unmistakable once you know it: the dog is trotting along, skips a step or hops with one back leg held up for a stride or two, then carries on as if nothing happened. Some dogs stretch the leg backwards to pop the kneecap back into place themselves.

Other patterns to watch for are bunny hopping with both back legs, sitting with a leg kicked out sideways, reluctance to jump up or down, stiffness after a nap, or a yelp when the dog lands awkwardly. Toy breeds can also develop problems in the hip joint, and the fine leg bones of a very small dog are more likely to fracture in a fall from a couch or a pair of arms.

A vet diagnoses patellar luxation by feeling the knee, grades how freely the kneecap moves, and may take x-rays. Mild grades are often managed conservatively with weight control, controlled exercise and physical rehabilitation. Higher grades, or dogs with ongoing lameness, may be candidates for surgical correction, and an orthopaedic surgeon is the person to discuss that with. Keeping your Maltipoo lean, using ramps or steps onto furniture, and avoiding slick flooring all reduce the strain the joint has to absorb.

Breathing: the windpipe, the throat and that honking cough

The windpipe is held open by rings of cartilage. In some small dogs, those rings soften and flatten, so the airway narrows when the dog breathes in or strains. This is tracheal collapse, and it produces a distinctive dry cough often described as a goose honk, typically triggered by excitement, pulling against a collar, drinking, heat and humidity, or pressure on the throat.

A separate and far less worrying event is reverse sneezing, a sudden burst of snorting inhalations that stops on its own. It is common in small dogs and usually harmless, but an episode that is new, frequent or prolonged still deserves a check, because nasal disease and airway irritation can look similar.

Any persistent cough in a small dog needs a diagnosis rather than a guess, since airway disease, heart disease, infection and collapsing trachea can overlap and the management differs completely. Open mouth breathing at rest, gums that look pale, grey or blue, a dog who cannot settle because of breathing effort, or collapse after a coughing fit is an emergency and needs a veterinarian immediately.

Day to day, a harness instead of a neck collar, a smoke free home, keeping the dog out of heat and humidity, and keeping body weight down all reduce the load on a narrow airway.

Eyes, ears, skin and coat

Both parent breeds contribute eye conditions. Inherited retinal degeneration causes gradually worsening night vision, so the first clue is often a dog who hesitates on stairs in dim light or bumps into furniture after dark. Cataracts cloud the lens and change the look of the pupil. Dry eye leaves the surface under lubricated, producing thick discharge, redness and discomfort. Tear overflow and the rust coloured staining below the inner corner of the eye is extremely common in white coated dogs, and while it is often cosmetic, it can also point to a blocked tear duct, inward turning eyelids or irritation that a vet should look at. A painful, squinting, suddenly red or cloudy eye is a same day problem.

Ears are drop shaped, hairy and warm inside, which traps moisture after baths and swimming. Head shaking, scratching at one ear, odour, redness or a dog who tilts the head calls for a veterinary exam so the cause can be identified before anything is put in the ear canal.

Skin allergy is the other recurring theme. Itch in dogs shows up as paw licking, face rubbing, armpit and belly scratching, recurring ear infections and scabbing, and it can be driven by environmental allergens, parasites or food ingredients. Your vet works through those possibilities in order. The coat itself needs attention too: a Maltipoo coat mats readily, and tight mats pull on the skin, hide infection and trap moisture underneath.

Heart murmurs and other internal concerns

Degenerative mitral valve disease is the heart condition small breeds are known for. The valve between two chambers of the heart thickens and leaks, which a vet hears first as a murmur during a routine exam long before the dog seems unwell. Many dogs live comfortably for a long stretch at that stage with monitoring, chest imaging and an ultrasound of the heart when the vet recommends it. Signs that the heart needs reassessment include a cough, tiring sooner on walks, faster breathing while sleeping, restlessness at night, or fainting.

Very young, very small puppies can drop their blood sugar quickly, which looks like wobbliness, weakness, glazed eyes, trembling or collapse. That is an emergency, not something to manage at home. A liver shunt, where blood bypasses the liver, is seen in small breeds and tends to show as poor growth, a dog who seems dull or disoriented, or unusual neurological episodes. Seizures, tremor syndromes described in white coated breeds, pancreatitis and digestive upsets also turn up on the list of health issues with Maltipoos.

None of these are diagnosable from a web page. They share vague early signs, which is exactly why a vet who examines your dog, runs bloodwork and listens to the chest is the one who can sort them out.

Key Takeaways

• Maltipoo health problems concentrate in six areas: teeth, knees, windpipe, eyes, skin and heart.
• Crossbreeding does not cancel inherited risk when both parent breeds share the same structural weaknesses.
• Dental disease is close to universal in small breeds and is the easiest problem to get ahead of with regular brushing and veterinary dental care.
• A skipped step or a briefly lifted back leg is the classic sign of a luxating patella and is worth an exam even if the dog seems fine afterwards.
• A dry honking cough points towards the airway, but any persistent cough in a small dog needs a diagnosis rather than an assumption.
• Breathing difficulty, blue or pale gums, collapse, seizures or an acutely painful eye are emergencies.
• Keeping your dog lean, using a harness rather than a collar, grooming out mats and attending routine check ups does more for long term health than any single intervention.

For a fuller list of the signs that mean same day or emergency care rather than a scheduled appointment, see Dog Emergency Signs.

Your veterinarian owns the diagnosis and the plan. They are the one who can grade a knee, read the heart, x-ray a tooth root and tell you which of the overlapping explanations fits your dog, and anything you do at home works best alongside that, never instead of it. If something about your Maltipoo has changed, however small, book the appointment and talk it through with your vet.