diff --git a/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/CacheMonitor.java b/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/CacheMonitor.java
index b0c36629e89..e89c1113e8d 100644
--- a/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/CacheMonitor.java
+++ b/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/CacheMonitor.java
@@ -67,5 +67,6 @@ public class CacheMonitor extends AbstractMonitor
     emitter.emit(builder.build(String.format("%s/hitRate", metricPrefix), cacheStats.hitRate()));
     emitter.emit(builder.build(String.format("%s/averageBytes", metricPrefix), cacheStats.averageBytes()));
     emitter.emit(builder.build(String.format("%s/timeouts", metricPrefix), cacheStats.getNumTimeouts()));
+    emitter.emit(builder.build(String.format("%s/errors", metricPrefix), cacheStats.getNumErrors()));
   }
 }
diff --git a/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/CacheStats.java b/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/CacheStats.java
index 1a9950c8698..33f0a145082 100644
--- a/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/CacheStats.java
+++ b/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/CacheStats.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ public class CacheStats
   private final long sizeInBytes;
   private final long numEvictions;
   private final long numTimeouts;
+  private final long numErrors;
 
   public CacheStats(
       long numHits,
@@ -36,7 +37,8 @@ public class CacheStats
       long size,
       long sizeInBytes,
       long numEvictions,
-      long numTimeouts
+      long numTimeouts,
+      long numErrors
   )
   {
     this.numHits = numHits;
@@ -45,6 +47,7 @@ public class CacheStats
     this.sizeInBytes = sizeInBytes;
     this.numEvictions = numEvictions;
     this.numTimeouts = numTimeouts;
+    this.numErrors = numErrors;
   }
 
   public long getNumHits()
@@ -77,6 +80,11 @@ public class CacheStats
     return numTimeouts;
   }
 
+  public long getNumErrors()
+  {
+    return numErrors;
+  }
+
   public long numLookups()
   {
     return numHits + numMisses;
@@ -104,7 +112,8 @@ public class CacheStats
         size - oldStats.size,
         sizeInBytes - oldStats.sizeInBytes,
         numEvictions - oldStats.numEvictions,
-        numTimeouts - oldStats.numTimeouts
+        numTimeouts - oldStats.numTimeouts,
+        numErrors - oldStats.numErrors
     );
   }
 }
diff --git a/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/MapCache.java b/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/MapCache.java
index 53e1e20280a..bf549ec31b9 100644
--- a/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/MapCache.java
+++ b/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/MapCache.java
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@ public class MapCache implements Cache
         byteCountingLRUMap.size(),
         byteCountingLRUMap.getNumBytes(),
         byteCountingLRUMap.getEvictionCount(),
+        0,
         0
     );
   }
diff --git a/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/MemcachedCache.java b/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/MemcachedCache.java
index ed7f5292e8a..436c606d496 100644
--- a/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/MemcachedCache.java
+++ b/client/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/client/cache/MemcachedCache.java
@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@ import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
 import com.google.common.base.Throwables;
 import com.google.common.collect.Maps;
 import com.google.common.primitives.Ints;
+import com.metamx.common.logger.Logger;
+import com.metamx.emitter.service.ServiceEmitter;
+import com.metamx.emitter.service.ServiceEventBuilder;
 import net.spy.memcached.AddrUtil;
 import net.spy.memcached.ConnectionFactoryBuilder;
 import net.spy.memcached.DefaultHashAlgorithm;
@@ -47,6 +50,8 @@ import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;
 
 public class MemcachedCache implements Cache
 {
+  private static final Logger log = new Logger(MemcachedCache.class);
+
   public static MemcachedCache create(final MemcachedCacheConfig config)
   {
     try {
@@ -60,9 +65,11 @@ public class MemcachedCache implements Cache
                                         .setHashAlg(DefaultHashAlgorithm.FNV1A_64_HASH)
                                         .setLocatorType(ConnectionFactoryBuilder.Locator.CONSISTENT)
                                         .setDaemon(true)
-                                        .setFailureMode(FailureMode.Retry)
+                                        .setFailureMode(FailureMode.Cancel)
                                         .setTranscoder(transcoder)
                                         .setShouldOptimize(true)
+                                        .setOpQueueMaxBlockTime(config.getTimeout())
+                                        .setOpTimeout(config.getTimeout())
                                         .build(),
           AddrUtil.getAddresses(config.getHosts())
         ),
@@ -84,6 +91,7 @@ public class MemcachedCache implements Cache
   private final AtomicLong hitCount = new AtomicLong(0);
   private final AtomicLong missCount = new AtomicLong(0);
   private final AtomicLong timeoutCount = new AtomicLong(0);
+  private final AtomicLong errorCount = new AtomicLong(0);
 
   MemcachedCache(MemcachedClientIF client, String memcachedPrefix, int timeout, int expiration) {
     Preconditions.checkArgument(memcachedPrefix.length() <= MAX_PREFIX_LENGTH,
@@ -105,14 +113,23 @@ public class MemcachedCache implements Cache
         0,
         0,
         0,
-        timeoutCount.get()
+        timeoutCount.get(),
+        errorCount.get()
     );
   }
 
   @Override
   public byte[] get(NamedKey key)
   {
-    Future<Object> future = client.asyncGet(computeKeyHash(memcachedPrefix, key));
+    Future<Object> future;
+    try {
+      future = client.asyncGet(computeKeyHash(memcachedPrefix, key));
+    } catch(IllegalStateException e) {
+      // operation did not get queued in time (queue is full)
+      errorCount.incrementAndGet();
+      log.warn(e, "Unable to queue cache operation");
+      return null;
+    }
     try {
       byte[] bytes = (byte[]) future.get(timeout, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
       if(bytes != null) {
@@ -133,14 +150,22 @@ public class MemcachedCache implements Cache
       throw Throwables.propagate(e);
     }
     catch(ExecutionException e) {
-      throw Throwables.propagate(e);
+      errorCount.incrementAndGet();
+      log.warn(e, "Exception pulling item from cache");
+      return null;
     }
   }
 
   @Override
   public void put(NamedKey key, byte[] value)
   {
-    client.set(computeKeyHash(memcachedPrefix, key), expiration, serializeValue(key, value));
+    try {
+      client.set(computeKeyHash(memcachedPrefix, key), expiration, serializeValue(key, value));
+    } catch(IllegalStateException e) {
+      // operation did not get queued in time (queue is full)
+      errorCount.incrementAndGet();
+      log.warn(e, "Unable to queue cache operation");
+    }
   }
 
   private static byte[] serializeValue(NamedKey key, byte[] value) {
@@ -183,7 +208,17 @@ public class MemcachedCache implements Cache
         }
     );
 
-    BulkFuture<Map<String, Object>> future = client.asyncGetBulk(keyLookup.keySet());
+    Map<NamedKey, byte[]> results = Maps.newHashMap();
+
+    BulkFuture<Map<String, Object>> future;
+    try {
+      future = client.asyncGetBulk(keyLookup.keySet());
+    } catch(IllegalStateException e) {
+      // operation did not get queued in time (queue is full)
+      errorCount.incrementAndGet();
+      log.warn(e, "Unable to queue cache operation");
+      return results;
+    }
 
     try {
       Map<String, Object> some = future.getSome(timeout, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
@@ -195,7 +230,6 @@ public class MemcachedCache implements Cache
       missCount.addAndGet(keyLookup.size() - some.size());
       hitCount.addAndGet(some.size());
 
-      Map<NamedKey, byte[]> results = Maps.newHashMap();
       for(Map.Entry<String, Object> entry : some.entrySet()) {
         final NamedKey key = keyLookup.get(entry.getKey());
         final byte[] value = (byte[]) entry.getValue();
@@ -212,7 +246,9 @@ public class MemcachedCache implements Cache
       throw Throwables.propagate(e);
     }
     catch(ExecutionException e) {
-      throw Throwables.propagate(e);
+      errorCount.incrementAndGet();
+      log.warn(e, "Exception pulling item from cache");
+      return results;
     }
   }