The Cavalier inheritance sets the priority list
A Cavapoo is a cross between a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a Poodle, usually a Miniature or Toy, and the health questions that deserve the most attention come mainly from the Cavalier side. Mitral valve disease, a progressive heart condition, is the Cavalier's most significant known problem and can begin earlier in this breed than in most others, so the single most important question you can ask a Cavapoo breeder concerns the Cavalier parent's heart. Syringomyelia, a painful condition involving the skull and spinal cord, is the other Cavalier condition a serious breeder screens for and talks about openly. A crossbreed puppy is not automatically protected from these conditions by being half Poodle; the genes arrive from the Cavalier parent regardless of what the puppy looks like, which is why parent screening, not the cross itself, is the safeguard.
What good heart and syringomyelia evidence looks like
For the heart, ask whether the Cavalier parent has been examined by a veterinary cardiology specialist, listening for valve changes and, where indicated, scanning the heart, and ask to see dated results, ideally repeated over time rather than a single check as a youngster, because a clear result at a young age carries less weight for a condition that develops with age. Ask the same frank questions about any Cavalier grandparents the breeder knows. For syringomyelia, screening involves a specialist scan of the head and neck, and not every breeder does it; one who does, and who can explain their breeding decisions around the results in plain language, is demonstrating the standard to look for. A breeder who dismisses either condition as not relevant to crosses, or who offers only a general vet check as screening, has told you something important.
The Poodle side and the shared checks
The Poodle parent contributes its own list. Ask about eye examinations covering inherited eye conditions relevant to Poodles, about patella checks, since slipping kneecaps occur in the smaller Poodle sizes commonly used in this cross, and about any history of epilepsy or joint problems in the line. Both parents should have recent, documented eye examinations regardless of breed, because some eye conditions can arrive from either side. Hip assessment matters more where a larger Poodle parent is used. None of this requires you to become a geneticist; it requires a breeder who tests, keeps dated paperwork for both parents, shares it without being chased, and can explain what each result means for the puppies in ordinary terms, including the limits — screening lowers risk thoughtfully, it does not guarantee any individual puppy's future health.
Using the information once the puppy is home
Take copies of both parents' results before you commit, and keep them with the puppy's own veterinary record, because your vet will find the family history genuinely useful at the puppy's first examination and beyond. Tell your vet which conditions were screened for and which were not, so monitoring can be planned with open eyes, particularly around heart checks as the dog matures. If a breeder cannot produce paperwork, walking away before you have met the puppies is far easier than afterwards, and good breeders expect exactly that discipline from buyers. KinsLe Pet Passport helps by holding the parents' screening results together with your Cavapoo's own records in one portable packet, ready for every vet visit from the first check onwards.