House committee advances bill to let certified chiropractors and veterinarians provide animal chiropractic care

The House Health Full Committee advanced House Bill 164, which would authorize chiropractic physicians and veterinarians who meet specified postgraduate training and certification standards to provide animal chiropractic care.

Supporters said the measure creates clear certification standards for practitioners who already treat animals and preserves owner choice; opponents — primarily veterinarians — said the bill removes necessary veterinary oversight and risks missed medical diagnoses that require diagnostic testing and medication.

Speaker Pat Marsh, the bill sponsor, told the committee the measure would “establish educational standards, which must be met by chiropractic physicians and veterinarians who perform animal chiropractic work” and said owners “should be given a choice” whether to take animals to a veterinarian or to a certified animal chiropractor.

Veterinarian Emily Dryden, representing the Tennessee Veterinary Medical Association, said animals often present signs that can be caused by internal disease rather than musculoskeletal problems. “Many times animals present with back pain that happens to be referred from another area in the body,” Dryden said, describing cases in which diagnostics such as radiographs and ultrasound revealed problems — including a splenic tumor — that chiropractic care would not address.

Elizabeth Griffin, a Clarksville veterinarian who holds an animal chiropractic certification through the IVCA, said the bill as drafted would exclude some veterinarians and chiropractors who are IVCA-certified and would therefore “actually hurt animal chiropractic” by cutting out a certifying pathway she and classmates used. Richard Cole, vice president of the Tennessee Chiropractic Association, said the bill mirrors model regulatory language used by national chiropractic oversight organizations and notes the AVCA (American Veterinary Chiropractic Association) certification and a 210-hour postgraduate training minimum. “House Bill 164 contains the key elements in the federation model code governing animal chiropractic services,” Cole said.

Tiffany Stevens, executive director of the Tennessee Chiropractic Association, described the bill as an effort to “create clear lanes here, not muddy the lanes,” and said AVCA training requires a minimum of 210 hours plus annual continuing education requirements.

Committee member Representative Gillespie pressed witnesses on whether owners can reliably determine when to seek veterinary care versus chiropractic care; Dryden, citing years of clinical experience, said owners frequently misinterpret symptoms and that veterinarians need access to diagnostics and, in some cases, to sedate animals to obtain necessary x-rays. Chiropractic witnesses said certification programs require knowledge of veterinary care, asserted collaborative referral is expected when internal disease is suspected, and said AVCA standards require knowledge that the animal is under a veterinarian’s care.

The committee voted to advance House Bill 164 as amended. Vote tally: 15 ayes, 6 nays, 2 present not voting. The bill moves to Government Operations.

The debate centered on: (1) scope-of-practice and how to document and enforce a veterinarian relationship when an animal sees a chiropractor; (2) which certifying bodies (AVCA or IVCA) the statute should reference or permit; and (3) whether statutory language should require diagnostic steps (imaging, sedation, bloodwork) before manipulation in cases where internal disease could explain musculoskeletal signs.

The committee did not adopt language requiring that chiropractors perform sedation or dispense medications; witnesses noted the bill expressly prohibits chiropractors from performing surgery, dispensing or administering medications, and from practicing traditional veterinary medical care.

Next step: Government Operations Committee consideration.