May 21, 2026
On the evening of Wednesday, May 20, the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners (TBVME) hosted a webinar on alternative therapies. AOPP was represented on the call by Lauren, and we want to share a clear summary of what was covered, what was not covered, and the concrete steps our community can take from here.
The short version: the board used the session to walk through the rules and statutes that are already in place and not much about the proposed rule changes that drew so many of us to the call. Several attendees asked the board to address the draft rule changes that were published in March. The board repeatedly declined, explaining that the proposed rules have not yet been formally proposed for public comment and that the evening was meant to clarify the current legal landscape. As the board put it, the goal was to close the gap between what many practitioners think is in the rules and what is actually on the books.
So while the proposed changes are the reason this issue is a “hot button” right now, the webinar itself was mostly an educational session on existing law.
The legal framework: two sources of authority
The single most important takeaway for Texas is how veterinary regulation is structured, because it determines who can actually change what.
The two sources of authority:
- Statute (Chapter 801, the Veterinary Licensing Act): Anything with an 801 prefix comes from the Texas Legislature. The board cannot change statute; only the legislature can, and it next convenes in January for a 140-day session.
- Administrative rules (the 570s, in the Texas Administrative Code): These are rules the board writes and can change, but only within the authority the legislature has given it.
This matters enormously because the requirement at the heart of our concern is set out in statute, not in the rules. So again, the legislature must change the statute before the board can further write, interpret, and then enforce those rules of the law.
Enforcement
A few points the board was clear about:
- The TBVME is complaint-driven.
- It does not go looking for violations except during inspections. It relies on complaints from the public and the profession.
- The board does not accept anonymous complaints
- For unlicensed practice, the board can issue a cease-and-desist order.
- A subsequent violation can carry monetary penalties
- Practicing veterinary medicine without a license is a misdemeanor
- Owners are exempt when working on their own animals.
The board noted that the recent uptick in cease-and-desist activity tracks a broader rise in complaints as the population has grown, and that alternative-therapy concerns are usually folded into those numbers.
A few words on the draft proposed changes
When asked, the board’s general counsel and chairman made an important clarification: the draft rules condense the alternative-therapy provisions from roughly seven separate rules into one, with the stated goal of making them shorter and easier to read, but they say the supervision requirements were not fundamentally changed. Because supervision flows from statute 801.151, the board explained it could not remove that requirement through rulemaking even if it wanted to.
The rule review itself was triggered by the board’s 2023 Sunset review, which attached the agency to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for four years and required a full review and rewrite of its rules NOT because of an increase in complaints. Although there have been an increase in complaints about alternative therapy providers in recent years.
The real lever: the legislature
Here is the conclusion that emerged repeatedly on the call, including from veterinarians on the line: because the supervision requirement is set in statute, the board has no authority to remove it. Meaningful change has to go through the Texas Legislature, and the board, as a government agency, is not permitted to lobby for that change.
That puts the responsibility on stakeholders like us.
How the AVMA fits in
To advocate effectively in Texas, it helps to understand the national framework, and that means understanding the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).
The AVMA publishes a Model Veterinary Practice Act (MVPA), a set of template principles that state legislatures and veterinary boards routinely use as a guide when they write or revise their own practice acts. Many states adopt its language closely. Critically for us, the MVPA’s definition of the practice of veterinary medicine expressly includes complementary, alternative, and integrative therapies. That is precisely the framework Texas adopted in 1999, and it is why these modalities fall under veterinary oversight in so many states. The MVPA was most recently revised in 2025 through a multi-stakeholder process and a vote of the AVMA’s House of Delegates (where each state’s veterinary association holds delegates).
The practical implication: if we want the legal definition to evolve, the AVMA and its state affiliate, the Texas Veterinary Medical Association, are not just obstacles. They are stakeholders we can work alongside.
There is a real precedent for this. On the webinar, a representative of the National Board of Certification for Animal Acupressure and Massage described how, in Washington State, advocates brought together the massage board, the physical therapy board, the veterinary board, and the state AVMA chapter to jointly write legislation that ultimately created a licensing pathway for these modalities. Similar approaches have advanced in other states. The lesson is that durable change has come from coalitions that include the veterinary establishment, not from confrontation with it.
Bottom line
The webinar confirmed that the supervision requirements many of us are worried about have been law since 1999 and cannot be undone by the board alone. The path forward runs through the legislature, through the public-comment process on the July draft, and through coalition-building with the veterinary community and the AVMA’s Texas affiliate.
TEXAS Practitioners, here’s what we’re asking you to do!
- Get on our action roster and tell us your county/zip so we can connect you with your legislators when the time comes: [sign-up form]
- Sign up for the vet board’s email list so you get the webinar recording and notice of the July meeting: [TBVME email subscribe link]
- Email us your story — two or three sentences on how these rules affect you, your animals, or your access to care. Your story is what moves legislators. ([email protected])
- Forward this to two people who should be included.
We’ll be back soon with the next steps.
-The AOPP team
