03/30/2026
UPDATE: per a member of the board, the comments, emails, letters and calls up to the day of the meeting have to be included so keep your ACTION up and send those thoughts on to the board!!!
⭐️ UPDATE: the DEADLINE (March 31) is up but keep those comments coming…they still get read!!!⭐️
Here’s the email to send your emailed letters requesting these proposed rules be declined/amended to protect your access to animal chiropractic provided by licensed professionals:
[email protected]
This is TIME sensitive and affects ANYONE with a TEXAS animal currently receiving chiropractic care or wanting to receive it in the future.
⭐️ SAVE TEXAS ANIMAL CHIROPRACTIC!!! ⭐️
Okay Texas animal owners. In a few days, if this goes through in Texas, your prior frustration with needing a veterinary referral form signed to receive chiropractic care on your animals in this state will no longer seem like it was all that bad.
They are now proposing that veterinarians (even those not specifically trained in animal chiropractic) be responsible for telling trained and properly licensed chiropractors be told by untrained DVMs which segment(s) to adjust for your animals care.
But, the real truth is, these changes will make it effectively illegal for anyone but your veterinarian to perform animal chiropractic in Texas. I don’t know about you, but I believe our veterinarians to already be overwhelmed with their current workloads. Adding this to their plate seems unimaginable. Not to mention all the owners who regularly rely on properly trained professionals will surely have a hard time getting their animals adjusted in a reasonable timeframe.
It is up to EVERY SINGLE OWNER who benefits from animal chiropractic provided by a trained and licensed professional to stand up for your rights as an owner to receive the care you want, from the trained professionals you want, in the affordable and time-efficient manner you want to FLOOD the TVME board with your letters, calls and voices. Show up while you still can!!
Read the language they want to add to the practice act. It will require your untrained-in-chiropractic veterinarian to tell your well-trained and licensed animal chiropractor where to adjust, SPECIFICALLY. I don’t know about you, but to me this seems like a terrible idea.
In truth, there is ZERO chiropractic training done for veterinarians in their traditional schooling. Veterinarians are trained in animal MEDICINE. It would be like asking your MD to tell your chiropractor how to find your subluxations, and “how and when” to adjust them. Can you imagine going to your doctor so they can tell another professional trained and licensed doctor how to do their job, with ZERO understanding or training in how to even do that job?
Our veterinarians are amazing humans and incredible doctors, but to require they each become proficient in chiropractic and alternative therapies to the level where they can even possibly provide the level of oversight being suggested here is unfair to them and their already overwhelming workloads.
I believe these changes are intended to address the ridiculous number of untrained layperson “professionals” out there doing work they are not qualified to do, but this newest effort to fix that problem further highlights a great need that has been growing over the last decade. The need for a separate and distinct way to either recognize those who are properly trained and qualified to perform these advanced techniques (like licensed chiropractors and veterinarians who have taken ADDITIONAL POST-GRADUATE training and board exams to be safe and effective in providing anima chiropractic care) or to create a separate certification all together for providing holistic animal care. In fact many other states (Oklahoma, Colorado, etc) already have a system in place to recognize trained and certified animal DC chiropractors as the professionals they are which also allows portal of entry chiropractic care.
The truth of the matter is that not a single veterinarian would know how to do animal chiropractic, if it weren’t for the decades of work and training by the CHIROPRACTORs who have been training VETERINARIANs in this work. The professionals within these two professions have already been working synergistically for decades to build a system that provides good access to holistic chiropractic care for animals.
And now, as predicted, the lack of regulatory oversight of untrained folks jumping into this field is threatening every Texas animal’s right to access this care. The regulatory organizations in the state have refused to recognize the need to specific protections around this synergistic model for licensed DCs and DVMs with ADVANCED training in several—I’ve personally been around for 3 different attempts made at updating state laws regarding the practice of animal chiropractic—attempts to update practice acts to reflect the changing landscape and growing need for improved access to animal chiropractic care WITHOUT overload traditional DVMs schedules trying to regulate a profession they know little to nothing about.
In my personal experience practicing in Texas for 16 years now, the biggest complaint I’ve heard from veterinarians who refuse to sign a referral form (and rightly so for their sake) is that they don’t know enough about chiropractic to know if its something the animal can benefit from and they DO NOT want the liability of signing off on a treatment they are un- or under-informed on. VALID!! Now the Vet board is proposing that the only way to your animal to receive th same care they are already received is to INCREASE that liability and workload on the DVMs, even those with no knowledge or training in this area of healing arts, by making them additionally responsible for telling chiropractors WHERE and HOW to treat something they don’t know the first thing about…chiropractic SUBLUXATIONS.
Veterinarians who are reading this. If what I am saying here ALSO makes sense to you, I believe your voices raised in unison against these changes can make the BIGGEST impact of all. Owners, discuss this with your veterinarians. Make them aware of what these changes mean if they do not already and ask if they will join you in supporting keeping access open for animal chiropractic done by CERTIFIED and LICENSED professional DOCTORS of CHIROPRACTIC in this great state of Texas.
Rant over. (Don’t forget to reach out to your state representatives/senators as well). Please PM me or comment below if you need help in taking action.
Here’s a link to all the details on how you can help:
🚨 Attention Horse Owners & Equine Professionals 🚨
Your animal’s access to care could be affected.
On April 21, 2026, the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners will hold a public meeting where they are expected to discuss changes that could limit holistic and alternative therapies to only being performed by and/or under a licensed DVM.
If this moves forward, it could impact services such as osteopathy, chiropractic care, acupuncture, PEMF, homeopathy, supplements and other forms of bodywork—potentially classifying them as veterinary medicine without a license.
📍 Meeting Details:
🗓 April 21, 2026
⏰ 9:00 AM
📌 Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation (TDLR) North Campus
1106 Clayton Lane, Suite 125E
Austin, TX 78723
If you care about maintaining access to these services for your horse, your presence matters. A strong turnout helps ensure that the voices of horse owners and practitioners are heard.
👉 Can’t attend in person?
The meeting will be livestreamed via YouTube (link to be posted on the TDLR website in April).
📣 You can also take action by submitting comments:
✉️ Mail: PO Box 12157, Austin, TX 78711
📧 Email: [email protected]
📞 Phone: 512-463-6599
📝 Be sure to reference: Chapter 573 and policies on alternative therapies/spinal manipulation/chiropractic
⏳ Deadline for comments: March 31, 2026 (by 12 PM)
🎤 Want to speak virtually during the meeting?
You must request to do so via email before the April 13 deadline.
This is an important moment for horse owners and equine professionals alike. If this affects you or your horses, now is the time to stay informed and involved.
Here is a link to the proposed draft...
https://veterinary.texas.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/chapter-573-rules-of-professional-conduct-updated-3-9-26.pdf
Please share to help spread the word.
