The Burrow
Feb 24, 2026
Pets are part of the family, and accidents do happen, so it’s important to be prepared for any unexpected vet trips. Pets can often eat food that could be toxic for them or become injured during a walk and may need emergency care right away.
With vet bills rising and unexpected accidents happening at any time, the pet insurance comparison experts at Compare the Market explored pet emergency concerns across Australia and the United States. We analysed accidental ingestion, injury, trauma and emergency vet care searches to understand what the most common pet accidents and which locations are impacted the most.
Across Australia, there’s an almost even split between dog and cat injury searches, with cat-related incidents at 4,640 searches, and dog-related incident searches at 3,920 across a 12-month period.
Cats are the most accident-prone pet, making up 54% of all searched pet accidents, and recording higher accident searches in 5 of 8 Australian states and territories.
When looking at specific injuries, however, “dog broken leg” was the most searched pet injury across Australia, with the highest search volumes coming from New South Wales, followed by Victoria and Queensland.
The Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania and the Northern Territory had the greatest per-person search volume concern for both cat and dog injuries and accidental ingestion. This may reflect fewer local veterinary services in the less populated regions, leading pet owners to search for emergency guidance more frequently.
The ACT recorded the highest level of concern for pet injuries and trauma in Australia, with the greatest volume of dog and cat injury and trauma related searches per capita (46.4 searches per 100k). The ACT also ranked first for dog accidental ingestion searches (12.7 searches per 100k) and recorded the second-highest level of cat ingestion searches nationwide (14.8 searches per 100k).
Similarly, the NT ranked highest for cat accidental ingestion searches (15.7 searches per 100k), second for dog ingestion, and placing in the top three for both cat and dog injury or trauma-related searches combined.
Overall, while the ACT and NT show the biggest per-capita searches for pet related accidents and injuries, larger states like VIC, NSW and South Australia continue to record consistently high search activity per number of residents. This demonstrates how pet injury and accidental ingestion are nationwide concerns.
Cat accidents and emergencies had the highest search volume across Australia, but what specific incidents are the biggest concerns for Australians? According to our research, ‘cat vomiting’ was the most searched term, with 1,870 searches across Australia. These searches were predominantly made in NSW and Vic, with each state recording over 500 searches in a 12-month period.
Additionally, the term ‘cat ate dog food’ saw a total of 870 searches across Australia, making it the second largest concern for cat-owners with the majority (560) of searches coming from NSW and VIC.
Similarly, the search term ‘cat ate chocolate’ was the third most common query in Australia with 160 total searches across all states and territories, 50 of which were in NSW.
Cat accident concerns are commonly related to accidental ingestion, as cats are usually able to move freely around the home and explore high or hidden areas where toxic foods or medication are often kept.
The biggest concern for dog owners across Australia was the search term ‘dog ate chocolate’, seeing exceedingly high search levels of 1,200 queries in the past year, which was the highest across all injury or poisonn-related queries.
This was followed by general queries surrounding dog injury related terms, such as ‘dog broken leg’ and ‘dog hit by car, which combined saw 310 total searches across the nation.
However, the vast majority of queries across Australia were related to poison and ingestion incidents. The search term ‘dog ate grape’ saw a significant volume of searches across Australia, with NSW totalling 170 searches and VIC at 140. However, grape ingestion for dogs were still 55% less searched than chocolate.
While ingesting toxic foods is a concern for both dogs and cats, dog accidents relating to injury are more commonly searched than those of cats, reflecting how dogs’ outdoor play and activity can often lead to more frequent injury.
Cats accounted for 63% of all searched pet accidents and injuries in the US, with a total of 60,240 across states, making them the most accident-prone pet based on search behaviour.
Despite this, the search term ‘dog broken leg’ saw a 31% higher search volume than ‘cat broken leg’. Both queries were most popular in California and Texas, with 260 queries in each state for dogs and 210 queries in California and 170 queries in Texas for cats.
When we analysed the total cat and dog incidents by state, cats recorded higher accident searches than dogs in every US state.
California had the highest total pet accident concern nationally, with 8,310 cat incident queries and 3,960 dog incident searches. This is followed closely by Texas, which recorded 5,740 cat queries and 3,110 dog incident searches. Cat incident searches appeared to be a nationwide trend, but in New York State, there was a higher search volume for dog-related concerns overall.
Beyond the largest states, states with smaller population show higher per-capita concerns. Oregon led with cat accidental ingestion searches (16.2 searches per 100k), while Vermont ranked highest for dog accidental ingestion (9.3 searches per 100k) and cat injury (13.9 searches per 100k).
Alaska, Wyoming, Rhode Island and South Dakota feature in the top five for dog injury related searches, with Alaska ranking highest at 17.6 per 100k, highlighting that pet emergency concerns may reflect fewer local veterinary services in the less populated regions, leading to higher search volume.
When looking at general pet emergency search terms such as ‘emergency vet near me’, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia have the highest demand for emergency veterinary care per 100k residents in a 12 month period.
The top five states and territories conducting frequent emergency vet care searches include:
Rural access issues and higher levels of pet emergencies outside major cities in the US led to the highest demand in emergency vet care across smaller states.
The following US states saw the largest search volume per 100k of residents for emergency vet care:
Adrian Taylor, Executive General Manager of General Insurance, comments: “Our pets rely on us to provide the best care and prevent accidents and injury, but the unexpected can still happen. Pet owners can create safer environments by storing dangerous food and medications out of reach, supervising pets outdoors, using protective barriers, and securing any hazardous areas.
“In a serious emergency, it’s vital to have vet information on hand. Having pet insurance in place can ensure a financial safety net and help households comfortably cover treatment costs when they need it most.”
This dataset ranks US and Australian states and territories based on search behaviour indicating concern around pet accidents and emergencies. Three groups of search prompts were analysed: accidental ingestion searches, injury-related searches, and emergency veterinary help searches.
For each prompt, Google Trends regional search interest data was collected across US and Australian states over a 12-month period (Dec 2024 – Nov 2025). Search interest scores were converted to searches per 100,000 population using City Population – Population Statistics. Each factor group was then normalised to a score between 0 and 1. If data was missing, a score of 0 was assigned.
The three factor scores were combined to give each state a total score out of 100, allowing states to be ranked from highest to lowest relative pet accident concern.
Search prompt groups used:
Cat – Accidental ingestion prompts:
Dog – Accidental ingestion prompts:
Cat – Injury & trauma prompts:
Dog – Injury & trauma prompts:
Emergency help prompts:
Indexing approach: All factors – Higher score indicates higher relative search concern.
Data timeframe: December 2024 – November 2025
Disclaimer: Ranking data represents relative search behaviour and may not reflect actual accident rates. All data is accurate with regards to the sources provided.