diff --git a/data-pipeline/src/trace_exporter.rs b/data-pipeline/src/trace_exporter.rs
index d3789a63d..779c65953 100644
--- a/data-pipeline/src/trace_exporter.rs
+++ b/data-pipeline/src/trace_exporter.rs
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ impl TraceExporter {
                             self.emit_metric(
                                 HealthMetric::Count(STAT_SEND_TRACES_ERRORS, 1),
                                 Some(vec![
-                                    Tag::new("response_code", response_status.as_str()).unwrap()
+                                    &Tag::new("response_code", response_status.as_str()).unwrap()
                                 ]),
                             );
                             anyhow::bail!("Agent did not accept traces: {response_body}");
@@ -235,18 +235,13 @@ impl TraceExporter {
     }
 
     /// Emit a health metric to dogstatsd
-    fn emit_metric(&self, metric: HealthMetric, custom_tags: Option<Vec<Tag>>) {
+    fn emit_metric(&self, metric: HealthMetric, custom_tags: Option<Vec<&Tag>>) {
         if let Some(flusher) = &self.dogstatsd {
             if custom_tags.is_some() {
                 match metric {
                     HealthMetric::Count(name, c) => {
-                        let tags = self
-                            .common_stats_tags
-                            .clone() // TODO: how the heck do we get around needing a clone here... :(
-                            .into_iter()
-                            .chain(custom_tags.unwrap())
-                            .collect::<Vec<Tag>>();
-                        flusher.send(vec![DogStatsDAction::Count(name, c, &tags)])
+                        let tags = self.common_stats_tags.iter().chain(custom_tags.unwrap());
+                        flusher.send(vec![DogStatsDAction::Count(name, c, tags)])
                     }
                 }
             } else {
diff --git a/dogstatsd-client/src/lib.rs b/dogstatsd-client/src/lib.rs
index 272d753e4..9728713a2 100644
--- a/dogstatsd-client/src/lib.rs
+++ b/dogstatsd-client/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 // Copyright 2024-Present Datadog, Inc. https://www.datadoghq.com/
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
-#![feature(variant_count)]
 
 use ddcommon::tag::Tag;
 use ddcommon::Endpoint;