Dead Cock/Rooster from mating?

[ChickenCanoe]

I found a young rooster stretched dead as a doornail in the morning pen when he was fine and healthy the night before, and running around mating all day.

I suspected a heart attack, though I did not have necropsy done.

Yeah...that testosterone can get them as well as heart defects.

LofMc

I used to do my own necropsies when I had many different breeds and lost a bird. But now with a single and extremely rare breed, it is imperative I know exactly the cause of every lost animal. I get a necropsy at the university vet school for every unexplained loss.
Luckily, no diseases have ever been discovered in my flocks.

 

[Thechickentrainer1999]

Not necessarily. Roosters die of a heart attacks fighting.
Chickens hearts are not like mammals. They have a smooth wall four chamber system which permits high blood flow rates. Their hearts respond to stress with a much steeper climb in heart rate than mammals. Their heart beat is already between 200 and 350 beats per minute, depending on size and breed. If you pick up a broody hen at night from an outside nest for example, some care needs to be taken because the stress causes a very fast increase in heartbeat. You can feel the increase with the hand that's cupping her underside. It's the chickens ability to raise it's heartbeat under stress that can kill them despite having a perfectly healthy heart.
Roosters here answering an escort call from a hen might travel 300 metres at panic speed with then immediately mate with the hen.

What if you only have 1 rooster?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

What about it?

 

[micstrachan]

I used to do my own necropsies when I had many different breeds and lost a bird. But now with a single and extremely rare breed, it is imperative I know exactly the cause of every lost animal. I get a necropsy at the university vet school for every unexplained loss.
Luckily, no diseases have ever been discovered in my flocks.

Sorry I didn’t know this already, bunt I assume this means you are s breeder?

 

[Thechickentrainer1999]

What nutrients does a rooster need or what preventative does he need to prevent having a heart attack or the hens?

 

[Shadrach]

What nutrients does a rooster need or what preventative does he need to prevent having a heart attack or the hens?

Nobody knows. There has been so little research done on rooster health.
There are a couple of things that have been researched.
A high calcium content feed is likely to produce liver and kidney problems.
Roosters need less fat in their diet than hens but nobody has put numbers to this as far as I know.
There is some evidence that the larger so called dual purpose breeds are more prone to heart problems than game fowl and land race breeds but again, I haven't seen numbers put to this.
Stress is always going to be an issue. Given this roosters may be more inclined to get stressed under certain keeping conditions. This is conjecture but does seem reasonable given the aggressive/protective nature of roosters.

 

[sourland]

Scary -

 

[ChickenCanoe]

What nutrients does a rooster need or what preventative does he need to prevent having a heart attack or the hens?

A balanced diet that includes the 40 nutrients all chickens need.
https://extension2.missouri.edu/g8352
Too much of a good thing is a bad thing but a balanced diet is the surest bet for a healthy heart.
The primary research into rooster nutrition has been in the area of broiler breeders and egg hybrid breeders.
Mature roosters also require much less protein than growing birds and laying hens.
13-14% crude protein is adequate.

 

[ValerieJ]

"Mature roosters also require much less protein than growing birds and laying hens.
13-14% crude protein is adequate."

How do you manage this? How do you get the rooster to eat from a different dish than the hens?

 

[Kiki]

The link posted above has info pulled from this book below. The book has been updated since that link so it might be a little different.

https://www.nap.edu/catalog/2114/nutrient-requirements-of-poultry-ninth-revised-edition-1994