diff --git a/statsd/client/stream.py b/statsd/client/stream.py
index 79951d25..6d71af64 100644
--- a/statsd/client/stream.py
+++ b/statsd/client/stream.py
@@ -29,7 +29,11 @@ def _send(self, data):
         """Send data to statsd."""
         if not self._sock:
             self.connect()
-        self._do_send(data)
+        try:
+            self._do_send(data)
+        except (OSError, RuntimeError):
+            self.reconnect()
+            self._do_send(data)
 
     def _do_send(self, data):
         self._sock.sendall(data.encode('ascii') + b'\n')
diff --git a/statsd/tests.py b/statsd/tests.py
index 56889772..23cc855a 100644
--- a/statsd/tests.py
+++ b/statsd/tests.py
@@ -1037,15 +1037,16 @@ def test_pipeline_packet_size():
 
 
 @mock.patch.object(socket, 'socket')
-def test_tcp_raises_exception_to_user(mock_socket):
+def test_tcp_reconnect_on_exception(mock_socket):
     """Socket errors in TCPStatsClient should be raised to user."""
     addr = ('127.0.0.1', 1234)
     cl = _tcp_client(addr=addr[0], port=addr[1])
+    cl.reconnect = mock.Mock(wraps=cl.reconnect)
     cl.incr('foo')
     eq_(1, cl._sock.sendall.call_count)
     cl._sock.sendall.side_effect = socket.error
-    with assert_raises(socket.error):
-        cl.incr('foo')
+    cl.incr('foo')
+    assert 1 == cl.reconnect.call_count
 
 
 @mock.patch.object(socket, 'socket')