Since our founding, our team has been focused on providing referring veterinarians, their clients and patients with specialty expertise, dedicated service, and the highest-level veterinary care available. From diagnostic imaging, to internal medicine and surgery, Alamo Pintado is equipped to deliver exceptional care.
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After five decades of continuous innovation, our Advanced Imaging Center makes it possible for our referring veterinarians to have access to an unmatched suite of state-of-the-art imaging technologies and veterinarians with expertise in these modalities. These include high and low field magnetic resonance (MRI), nuclear scintigraphy, computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), ultrasonography, digital radiography, motion detection gait analysis, and more.
Integrated Multimodality Imaging
Our focus on Integrated Multimodal Imaging is truly having a transformative impact on our ability to work with you to precisely diagnose your patient’s condition. By combining and overlaying PET imaging with results from radiography, MRI, and CT, we are identifying abnormalities that otherwise would be missed.
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A culture of successful outcomes.
From colic cases to long bone fractures and arthroscopies, we strive to provide the highest level of veterinary care and surgical expertise available. Advanced imaging helps provide a more specific diagnosis that allows for a precision approach to treatment, surgery, and rehabilitation. Since our founding more than 50 years ago, our mission has been to provide optimal care to our patients and deliver successful outcomes.
One of the most apparent outcomes is survival after colic surgery. When he founded Alamo Pintado in 1972, this was a focus of the late Dr. Doug Herthel. In the ensuing years, he and the Alamo Pintado Team worked constantly to perfect our colic surgery procedures, protocols, and post-surgical care. These days our team includes a PhD scientist who works with our veterinarians to analyze patient outcomes and modify our approaches as needed.
Our three surgeons are board certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgery and have a combined total of more than 50 years of surgical experience. This trio, which is supported by an excellent group of dedicated surgical technicians, is recognized industry wide for being innovative and collaborative. Collectively, they provide a world-class surgical environment that results in excellent patient outcomes.
Surgeries Performed at Alamo Pintado
Post-Surgical Care
Collaborating with our board certified internists is a key factor in successful surgical outcomes at Alamo Pintado, contributing to the excellent care our patients receive post-surgery. Our surgical patients are monitored and cared for 24 hours a day, seven days a week by a capable team of veterinarians and veterinary technicians to ensure they have every opportunity for a full and vital recovery.
Equine Recovery Pool - Alamo Pintado has a custom, warm-water recovery pool that eases the surgical patient’s transition from anesthesia. Horses wake up in a warm, weightless and tranquil environment, while minimizing stress and movement.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)-uses the antibacterial activity of oxygen on certain anaerobic microorganisms and enhances white blood cell activity to enhance wound healing and stimulate growth of capillary beds into injured tissues.
Regenerative Medicine
The use of regenerative medicine at Alamo Pintado has a long and productive history. Beginning in the 1990’s, Dr. Doug Herthel, the founder of Alamo Pintado, pioneered the early use of bone marrow as a source of stem cells and growth factors to successfully treat patients who were once thought untreatable. The early bone marrow procedures have evolved into the more precise cell and growth factor based regenerative therapies used today. The advancement in imaging techniques has further allowed for precision based ap- plication of many of these regenerative techniques further improving the overall outcomes.
• PRP
• ProStride
• IRAP
• BMAC
• Stem cells
• Exosome regenerative therapies
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Motion Detection Gait Analysis
As Alamo Pintado continues to invest in new technologies to improve the health and well-being of the horse, one of our most recent additions is a 12-camera motion detection and gait analysis system that enhances the kinematic evaluation of horses. This technology, which has been carefully tested and validated in Europe, allows us to more effectively quantify gait asymmetry, more thoroughly assess lameness issues, better understand the kinematics of a patient’s gait, and monitor responses to different treatments and rehabilitation protocols. We generate reports based on the motion analytics, which are made available to you as well as the owners and trainers of horses referred to us for lameness evaluations.
If you have questions about the technology or have a patient who would benefit from gait analysis, call (805) 688-6510. We would be pleased to have you visit in person or view it via Zoom if you are interested in seeing the exam.
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Our Internal Medicine Team provides unparalleled care for the complex cases they treat. Our internists’ expertise and diagnostic capabilities include infectious disease, cardiovascular, neurological, ophthalmological, dermatological, gastrointestinal, oncological, muscular, metabolic, endocrine, and neonatal disorders.
The Team
Our internal medicine specialists, Drs. Erin Byrne and Carolina Lopez, are board certified by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Dr. Byrne has decades of experience and works tirelessly to ensure that each patient is given every opportunity for recovery. A former Alamo Pintado intern, Dr. Lopez returned to Alamo Pintado in 2018 to work with Dr. Byrne and the internal medicine team. Dr. Lopez has a special interest in teaching and leads our longstanding veterinary internship program.
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Our Alamo Pintado doctors Ed Hamer, Lisa Teske, Tyler Stevenson and Greg Parks deliver a full range of reproductive services to help serve you and your clients. We can collaborate with you to reproductively manage mares for artificial insemination with fresh, cooled, or frozen semen. Along with providing conventional embryo flushes, we also offer advanced reproductive services, including follicular oocyte aspiration for ICSI (intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection).
Alamo Pintado encompasses full stallion services by providing phantom collection training, processing for cooled and frozen semen, and semen storage. We are USDA approved to freeze and store stallion semen for export to multiple countries. We also offer epididymal semen freezing for the unexpected loss of a stallion, allowing for future breeding.
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Forty years ago, Alamo Pintado held its first Veterinary Symposium as a continuing education opportunity for our referring veterinarians. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with equine veterinarians attending from across the western United States. Importantly, the atmosphere was thoughtful, educational, and collegial. In subsequent symposia, the topics covered have broadened to include neurology, surgery, diagnostic imaging, reproduction, internal medicine, regenerative medicine, lameness, podiatry, and relevant presentations delivered by physicians and researchers.
In early 2025, Alamo Pintado will be hosting its 21st Veterinary Symposium, which is RACE-Approved for about 14 hours of CE. We invite you to join us for a few educational and enjoyable days in California’s beautiful Santa Ynez Valley. Details to follow.
