diff --git a/rust/main/agents/relayer/src/msg/op_queue.rs b/rust/main/agents/relayer/src/msg/op_queue.rs
index 41ac5b6d62..d22e0c3c83 100644
--- a/rust/main/agents/relayer/src/msg/op_queue.rs
+++ b/rust/main/agents/relayer/src/msg/op_queue.rs
@@ -29,12 +29,10 @@ impl OpQueue {
     /// it's very likely that its status has just changed, so this forces the caller to consider the new status
     #[instrument(skip(self), ret, fields(queue_label=%self.queue_metrics_label), level = "trace")]
     pub async fn push(&self, mut op: QueueOperation, new_status: Option<PendingOperationStatus>) {
-        if let Some(new_status) = new_status {
-            op.set_status_and_update_metrics(
-                new_status,
-                Arc::new(self.get_operation_metric(op.as_ref())),
-            );
-        }
+        op.set_status_and_update_metrics(
+            new_status,
+            Arc::new(self.get_operation_metric(op.as_ref())),
+        );
 
         self.queue.lock().await.push(Reverse(op));
     }
diff --git a/rust/main/agents/relayer/src/msg/op_submitter.rs b/rust/main/agents/relayer/src/msg/op_submitter.rs
index 0694595ae3..f35a991c45 100644
--- a/rust/main/agents/relayer/src/msg/op_submitter.rs
+++ b/rust/main/agents/relayer/src/msg/op_submitter.rs
@@ -293,6 +293,7 @@ async fn prepare_task(
                 }
                 PendingOperationResult::Drop => {
                     metrics.ops_dropped.inc();
+                    op.decrement_metric_if_exists();
                 }
                 PendingOperationResult::Confirm(reason) => {
                     debug!(?op, "Pushing operation to confirm queue");
@@ -369,6 +370,7 @@ async fn submit_single_operation(
         }
         PendingOperationResult::Drop => {
             // Not expected to hit this case in `submit`, but it's here for completeness
+            op.decrement_metric_if_exists();
         }
         PendingOperationResult::Success | PendingOperationResult::Confirm(_) => {
             confirm_op(op, confirm_queue, metrics).await
@@ -457,9 +459,7 @@ async fn confirm_operation(
         PendingOperationResult::Success => {
             debug!(?op, "Operation confirmed");
             metrics.ops_confirmed.inc();
-            if let Some(metric) = op.get_metric() {
-                metric.dec()
-            }
+            op.decrement_metric_if_exists();
         }
         PendingOperationResult::NotReady => {
             confirm_queue.push(op, None).await;
@@ -478,6 +478,7 @@ async fn confirm_operation(
         }
         PendingOperationResult::Drop => {
             metrics.ops_dropped.inc();
+            op.decrement_metric_if_exists();
         }
     }
     operation_result
diff --git a/rust/main/hyperlane-core/src/traits/pending_operation.rs b/rust/main/hyperlane-core/src/traits/pending_operation.rs
index 8906777c39..f5480b197b 100644
--- a/rust/main/hyperlane-core/src/traits/pending_operation.rs
+++ b/rust/main/hyperlane-core/src/traits/pending_operation.rs
@@ -67,6 +67,13 @@ pub trait PendingOperation: Send + Sync + Debug + TryBatchAs<HyperlaneMessage> {
     /// Get the metric associated with this operation.
     fn get_metric(&self) -> Option<Arc<IntGauge>>;
 
+    /// Decrement the metric associated with this operation if it exists.
+    fn decrement_metric_if_exists(&self) {
+        if let Some(metric) = self.get_metric() {
+            metric.dec();
+        }
+    }
+
     /// Set the metric associated with this operation.
     fn set_metric(&mut self, metric: Arc<IntGauge>);
 
@@ -80,10 +87,12 @@ pub trait PendingOperation: Send + Sync + Debug + TryBatchAs<HyperlaneMessage> {
     /// Set the status of the operation and update the metrics.
     fn set_status_and_update_metrics(
         &mut self,
-        status: PendingOperationStatus,
+        status: Option<PendingOperationStatus>,
         new_metric: Arc<IntGauge>,
     ) {
-        self.set_status(status);
+        if let Some(status) = status {
+            self.set_status(status);
+        }
         if let Some(old_metric) = self.get_metric() {
             old_metric.dec();
         }