07/22/2026
Today started at 3:30 a.m.
I drove 200 miles (more than 3 hours) to Austin to speak for just 3 minutes at the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners meeting… then turned around and drove the same 200 miles back home.
Did it change the outcome? Unfortunately, no.
The Board voted to move forward with the proposed changes to Rule 573.14(b)(2), despite testimony reiterating that chiropractic is not a medical modality or treatment option—it is a separate and distinct healing art with its own education, philosophy, and standards of practice.
Despite the outcome, I’d do it again.
For more than 20 years, I’ve made trips like this because I believe my clients, their animals, and my profession deserve a voice. Every time it seems Texas is finally moving toward meaningful legislation that would improves route to faster, more direct access to properly trained, certified, and insured animal chiropractors, the effort is met with opposition and delayed once again.
Let me be clear: I believe deeply in collaboration between veterinarians and chiropractors. Some of the most rewarding cases I’ve ever been part of were true team efforts. We are absolutely better together.
What I’m tired of is the ongoing turf war.
I’m tired of the assumption that, although veterinarians receive no chiropractic training in veterinary school, they should have the authority to dictate how, when, and where chiropractic care is delivered. No veterinarian leaves vet school with any tangible, meaningful understanding of chiropractic and its principles and proper application, yet under the current system they have greater authority over animal chiropractic than doctors of chiropractic who have spent years treating animals and even teaching veterinarians these techniques.
One statement I heard during discussions at the meeting today stood above the rest.
A doctor said, “The best solution would be for animal chiropractic to have its own regulating board.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Maybe that’s the conversation we should be having.
Thank you to everyone who continues to stand with this profession, thank you to all the DVMs who continue to sign referrals and collaborate with me and others like me for the betterment of the animals we care for. Thank you to those who continue to advocate for evidence-based collaboration, and fight for better access to qualified animal chiropractic care. Progress isn’t always fast, but it’s always worth pursuing.
Onward.
