Australian Cattle Dog

by Julie McCarty
(Olivehurst California)


I had a rescued Australian Cattle Dog mix who weighed about 60 lbs.

He found and ate 2 small rabbits one night and I did not know this had happened until the next morning when I found him dead suddenly.

He showed no distress the night before. I found the carcass's in the morning in my yard. The heads were gone from two small dutch cross young rabbits.

I did not associate these two events until I took him to my vet for a necropsy.

My vet discovered two rabbit heads in his stomach!!!

Some how they caused a blockage. They were not digested, and maybe 12 hours had passed since I can determine he ate them.

I was just in shock!!

Beware this tragic hazard with dogs and small rodents and mammals!!

He swallowed them whole.

Comments for Australian Cattle Dog

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Dec 17, 2009
 Im Sorry
by: Anonymous

I'm sad to hear about your story but sometimes I wonder what dogs are thinking.
Oct 08, 2018
 I'm so sorry but thank you so much!
by: Cattle dog dad

Two weeks ago our cattle dog caught a rabbit and appeared at the back door with it's legs sticking out of her mouth. When my wife tried to grab it Edie swallowed the thing whole! I was shocked but assumed it must happen in nature, now I know to watch out! ...and BTW, to you who said "what they're thinking" to a person who's dog just died F.U.! What they were thinking were the instincts that made them the most important partners to human evolution. We didn't survive the last ice age without dogs. We didn't domesticate cattle, sheep etc. without dogs. They are our partners in survival and a dog died in space before a human ever went. Thank Dog!

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