Veterinary Orthopedic Manipulation (VOM) is a healing technology that locates areas of the animal's nervous system that has fallen out of communication, and re-establishes neuronal communication and thus induces healing.
VOM is singularly the most simple, effective and safe healing modality in veterinary care to date. For the VOM practitioner it is an exquisitely objective, fast and easy to apply technology that takes a minimum amount of time to master and whose scope of application appears has yet to be fully appreciated.
What can VOM treat?
Routinely treated are conditions such as: - Acute and non-acute lameness
- Progressive lameness
- Hip Dysplasia-like syndromes
- IV disc disease
- Progressive myelopathies ("down in the rears" dogs)
- Urinary and fecal incontinence
- Unilateral lameness
- Wobbler's Disease
- Diseases of the knee
- Esophageal disease
- Increased of decreased GI mobility disease
- Digestive disorders
- Performance problems
- Behavioral problem
- Agility dysfunction
- Endocrine disease
- Many more
Is Veterinary Orthopedic Manipulation (VOM) chiropractic care?
No! VOM exists in between veterinary medicine and chiropractic care. It has similarities to some of the chiropractic modalities and functions by restoring function by reducing "subluxations" as is done in chiropractic care. It uses a hand-held device that is used in a popular human chiropractic technique called "Activator Methods" but it is not to be confused with that technique. The differences between VOM and Chiropractic care are significant and distinct.
VOM exists in a gray area between both professions (Veterinary and Chiropractic) and benefits from the positive aspects of both, a hybrid, and thus more effective than either by themselves. VOM is not animal chiropractic care and thus is not taught by the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association (AVCA). VOM is not recognized by the AVCA (the AVCA does not recognize anything it does not teach).
Dr Inman has formerly presented at with American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association, Association of Pet Dog Trainers, the Maine Veterinary Medical Association, and the German Shepherd Clubs of America, to name a few.
Why is VOM so accurate?
VOM is so accurate because it finds and reduces
all neuronal subluxations. All neuronal subluxations have a pathological reflex demonstrably associated with them.
A pathological reflex is like a knee jerk response. It is either there or it is not. It is an objective means to determine the presence and reduction of neuronal subluxation. The pathological read is not "partially there", "kinda there", or "almost there" adding a factor of subjectivity to interpretation. VOM is a precisely objective science.
Chiropractic "Listings"
vs.
VOM "Pathological Reads"
All chiropractic techniques (veterinary and human) rely on the chiropractic "listing" to determine the presence of a subluxation. Through manual palpation a misplaced bone prominence or a taught and tender muscle may be discovered by a competent veterinary chiropractor whose patient is cooperative and relaxed. This is a listing, an anatomical subluxation sign, and almost always is indicative of a neuronal subluxation syndrome.
Unfortunately, only 40% of all neuronal subluxations produce palpable anatomical subluxation signs. This means over half of all the animal's subluxations will be overlooked if anatomical listings are used as a means to discover them.
The good news is that
all neuronal subluxations produce "pathological reads", and all these reads are obvious and easy to discover and reduce.
The goal of an adjustment in an animal is all the vertebral subluxations in that animal are reduced. Subluxation reduction based on anatomical listings will get approximately half of the total neurological subluxations present in the animal. Subluxation reduction based on pathological reads will get them all, and will verify they have been reduced. Fast, easy, effective.
How it works
All chiropractic modalities have one thing in common in that they all reduce the vertebral subluxation complex by providing motion or force to the fixated or subluxated joint.
Spinal Injury = Neuronal Subluxation Syndrome = Pathological Read
- Neuronal Subluxation + Motion (force) = Subluxation Reduced
So, if you put motion into a joint that is associated with a neuronal subluxation sign, a pathological read, you reduce the subluxation. It is that simple. All the various types of chiropractic techniques have this motion or force into the subluxated joint in common. VOM delivers its force with a hand-held device. It looks a bit like a spring-loaded doorstop.
Your VOM practitioner has extensive references covering the research investigating the principles portrayed above and can provide them upon request. These references are replete in chiropractic journals.
Is VOM an animal version of Activator Methods, a human chiropractic technology
using the hand-held device?
No. Activator Methods developed by Arlan Fuhr D.C. uses the spinal accelerometer and relies exclusively on listings demonstrated by leg length checks which are anatomical subluxation signs.
Why is VOM so successful?
Because VOM locates all the neuronal subluxations present in the animal regardless of whether clinical listings are present and reduces them and confirms their reduction. Inherent in the VOM Technology is a built-in rescheduling protocol that inserts the patient on a self-regulating readjustment interval. Again, an easy, objective science.
How can VOM be that easy?
Why not? Who says that a healing modality has to be complicated, difficult and expensive? Who says it should take hundreds of hours to learn and perfect?
A technology that goes to the root of the problem, a simple technology that relies on the animal's innate ability to heal itself, one that re-establishes communication with the pet's ability to heal itself, will be easy, powerful and effective.
Is VOM effective on horses?
You bet! All the reads we see in the dog and the cat are magnified in the horse. Areas usually devoid of subluxations in the shoulder areas of dogs and cats are hot spots in the equine.
Many of the AVCA-trained veterinary chiropractors have taken the VOM Seminar will choose to use the device to locate all the subluxations and then proceed to manually adjust the horse using the AVCA techniques.
Why haven't I heard of the
VOM Technology before?
Because it works!
That may not make sense at first, but consider this: if the VOM Technology does what it appears to do, it makes a lot of techniques, surgeries and medications obsolete.
The professionals that provide those techniques, surgeries and medications will be placed in academic and financial jeopardy. These are the people that control publications in the field and control licensure and applications. AKA politics.
Click here for more information about William Inman and VOM.
Return to Jake's VOM treatment post.
introduced to a healing technology by my veterinarian call VOM. A practitioner would come to Great Lakes Vet and over the years all of my dogs have had treatments. (all meaning Teddy, Ari, Olivia, Tori, Kobie, Brita and now Jake) Veterinary Orthopedic Manipulation was developed by William Inman in the 1980s and 1990s and uses devices I have yet to understand much less explain to others. Thus the reason for this post! When I would tell people about the treatment it went something like this… 
evice and go down the back 3 times writing things down and then they take another thing with two things and go down the back and then they…. oh.. I don’t even understand what I’m saying – I’ll just send you the information!” 
