At Taylor Animal Hospital of Smithville, we treat dogs and cats only. Schedule an appointment with a veterinarian today!

We run our schedule based on appointments. Appointments help us keep the schedule running smoothly and on time. If you'd like to visit our clinic, give us a call to schedule an appointment with a veterinarian.

Here is a list of a few places we recommend taking your pets when a veterinarian at our clinic isn't available.

- MU VHC KC (formerly the AEC)

8141 N. Oak Trafficway 

Kansas City, MO 64118

Phone number: (816) 455-5430 

- BluePearl Northland

139 NE 91 Street

Kansas City, MO 64155

Phone number: (816) 759-5016

- Mission Veterinary Emergency and Specialty

5914 Johnson Drive

Mission, KS 66202

Phone number: (913) 722-5566

A veterinarian at our clinic can treat emergencies and urgent care conditions during business hours. For emergencies and urgent care visits, we ask that you call ahead so that we can prepare for your arrival.

Yes, cats can get arthritis. Cats suffer from arthritis in the same ways dogs do. However, they are better at hiding symptoms. Arthritis in cats can be subtle, and you may not notice changes to their behavior right away.

Symptoms may include:

• Not eating well if their food is up on a counter
• Not going up or down the stairs to their food or litter box
• Poop accidents outside the litterbox
• Hiding down low instead of jumping up onto furniture

If you feel as though your cat has arthritis or pain, a veterinarian can go through pain control options and lifestyle adjustments to help.

An emotional support animal is a pet that provides support for you as the owner. We cannot write prescriptions for human treatments. The only documentation we can provide is a health certificate at the time of an examination. We cannot write a health certificate for a patient we have not examined. Our clinic policy is to only write health certificates at the time of the examination. If you need an emotional support animal, a veterinarian on our team will direct you to contact your physician.

There are no safe over-the-counter or human medications for dogs or cats.

Buffered aspirin or baby aspirin will cause stomach ulcers. According to Verywell Health, aspirin stays in the system for at least 10 days and prevents us from being able to give medications that work safely for dogs and cats.

Motrin (Ibuprofen), Aleve (Naproxen), Tylenol, and Excedrin are all toxic and cause either liver or kidney disease in addition to an upset stomach with vomiting and diarrhea.

If you feel like your pet is in pain, give us a call! A veterinarian can find a solution that is safe for your pet. The clinic phone number is (816) 688-3557.

For your first visit, we will have some new client/patient paperwork for you to fill out. This makes sure we have the most up-to-date contact information for you and the most accurate information for your pet.

After you check in at the front desk, you will be brought into an examination room where you can fill out the paperwork and your pet can get comfortable.

A veterinary technician will come in to greet you and discuss your concerns for the visit. If your pet needs a nail trim or any laboratory samples collected, they may go to the treatment area with the technician.

A veterinarian will then come in, go over your concerns, examine your pet, and discuss the examination and any treatment plan needed.

Many dogs and cats do much better away from their owner in a larger open area.

Many dogs are protective of you, and once we remove the need to protect their owner, they have less to worry about. We also have more room to move around, and all of our major supplies are in the treatment area, making it quicker to administer treatments or collect laboratory samples.

Our clinic policy is that we do not wrestle or manhandle any patient. Our goal is to make each visit as low-stress as possible.

If a patient is too nervous to be safely examined, a veterinarian will recommend sedation or send home anxiety medications and try again on a different day.

We like to keep our canine patients protected by selecting a vaccine protocol suitable for you and your pet based on their lifestyle and needs.

All pets need a rabies vaccine. In cases where a pet has not had a rabies vaccine administered by a veterinarian and there is a concern for exposure to rabies, the state veterinarian and the Department of Health and Senior Services have the final say in testing or quarantine protocols.

We consider rabies, DHPP (distemper, canine hepatitis, parvovirus, and parainfluenza virus), Leptospirosis, and Bordetella bronchiseptica vaccines to be core vaccines. Core vaccines are those recommended for complete protection against the most common communicable diseases.

If your pet hunts or frequents environments known to have ticks, we have the Lyme vaccine that is administered yearly.

If your pet goes to boarding/grooming/daycare/dog parks, the canine influenza H3N8 vaccine is available and is administered yearly.

If your pet has a history of vaccine reactions, we can split the vaccines up by doing one at a time and a few weeks apart.

If your pet has a known reaction to certain vaccinations, we can discontinue that vaccination and consider other means of protection if your pet needs to be boarded or groomed.

We like to keep our feline patients protected by selecting a vaccine protocol suitable for you and your pet based on their lifestyle and needs.

All pets need a Rabies vaccine.  In cases where a pet has not had a Rabies administered by a veterinarian and there is concern for exposure to Rabies, the state veterinarian and Department of Health and Senior Services has the final say in testing or quarantine protocols.  

We consider Rabies and FVRCP (Feline viral rhinotracheitis, Calicivirus, and Panleukopenia), to be core vaccines.   Core vaccines are those recommended for complete protection against the most common communicable diseases.  

If your pet goes outside, we recommend the Feline Leukemia vaccine (FeLV).  This protects from a virus that is easily spread from cat to cat and can cause severe immune system problems.

We do not vaccinate against FIV.  We recommend testing for FIV and FeLV and keeping positive cats indoors to avoid continuing to spread these immunocompromising diseases.  

If your pet has a history of vaccine reactions, we can split the vaccines up by doing one at a time a few weeks apart.

If your pet has a known reaction to certain vaccinations, we can discontinue that vaccination and consider other means of protection if your pet needs to be boarded or groomed.