Vets and experts- does this look healthy?

[SiennaSienna]

My mom is buying a puppy from a local farmer (we’re in Canada). I don’t know anything about dogs but I noticed the nose is a bit pink and has dark crusts? The puppy is currently 7 weeks old. Is that normal or does it indicate underlying health issues? Adding a pic below. Fwiw it’s a cavapoo. Thanks in advance.

Hello from Scotland!

I'm not sure about the crusty bits (could just be dirt? Hopefully someone knowledgeable about that side of things will pop in soon) but the pink bits on the nose are absolutely fine, it's just to do with the pigmentation. When one of my dogs was born, her nose was almost entirely pink but with some black freckles on it - it's now solid black.

Our systems might be very different from yours, but when we buy a puppy or kitten in the UK they have to have had some vaccinations first, so that obviously lets a vet check them over before they're sold and you'd hope that any health issues would be picked up then. We'd also take a new animal to the vet ASAP after purchase for a check up and to get them registered there.

Also in Scotland
Has your mum got the puppy yet, 7 weeks is on the young side to leave its mother (8 weeks old is better). Also did she see the puppy with the mother when she chose it? If the farmer also owned the father I would expect to have met him too.

As said above we would expect puppies to have a vet check before sale

The pinkness is just pigmentation and has nothing to do with how healthy the puppy is. The brown bits could be dirt or food - it's impossible to tell from a photo but otherwise the puppy looks healthy enough.

However who is this farmer? Why is he breeding a fashionable crossbreed? Has your mum met the dam and the other puppies? Have the puppies been health checked by a vet at an absolute minimum?

Thanks all. My mom’s not picking her up for another 10 days. She will have had her vet trip and vaccines by then. I went along to the farm. They are dairy farmers but have just had their second litter of cavapoos so it’s not a puppy farm. We met the other puppies in the litter too, all looking happy. I just noticed the slightly odd nose in the photo. Do vets typically issue a certificate that we should ask for? Any red flags we should look out for? Thanks again. I’m trying to help my mom navigate all this

“Our systems might be very different from yours, but when we buy a puppy or kitten in the UK they have to have had some vaccinations first.”

That’s not true, the only legal requirement before sale is a microchip, and there can be good reasons in terms of vaccine compatibility to not start the course with the breeder.

OP the pink is just pigment which may or may not change as the puppy gets older but a healthy puppy should not have nasal discharge, and I would want to see some evidence of a veterinary health check - a signed and dated letter/certificate or a copy of the clinical notes from the examination.

Hi, I got this reply: ‘Good morning , Rosie has her full health examination on June 29th at 10:00. At this appointment she will also get her vaccinations and deworming. She will receive her “health Passport” which I will pass on to you when you pick her up. This is what you will take to your vet when she goes for her next vaccination appointment at 10 weeks old, followed by her last round at 12 weeks. She will then be good until she is five / six months old , this is when she will receive her rabies shot. Our vet will not microchip the puppies, he thinks they are too tiny at 8 weeks old and would be too panful. Our vet recommends getting puppies microchipped closer to 6 months old or when a pet comes in to be spayed or neutered .
Do you have a named picked out for her yet? We will start calling her by her new name 😊’
that sounds ok, right?

I would ask about the nose and what the vet says in the appointment about it. Even if it is dirt I would not be that happy as would prefer the puppies to be in a cleaner environment but if the puppy has just stuck their nose in somewhere and it is recent it may be different.

Also check the "type/manufacturer" of vaccination the dog has so you can check your local vet stocks the same.

Micriochipping in Canada is more usual to do at 6 months Unlike in the UK where is has to be done at 8 weeks.

I would want to check by sight health tests done on the mother

Crusty nose could be from food as they are likely to be on some sort of mush, the pink pigment is natural my cavalier x had an almost entirely pink nose that turned black. Puppies are fine being microchipped from 8 weeks, as they have to be chipped before leaving the breeder in the uk.