diff --git a/lib/datadog/statsd/forwarder.rb b/lib/datadog/statsd/forwarder.rb
index dcbd53e..88624eb 100644
--- a/lib/datadog/statsd/forwarder.rb
+++ b/lib/datadog/statsd/forwarder.rb
@@ -25,11 +25,13 @@ def initialize(
       )
         @transport_type = connection_cfg.transport_type
 
-        if telemetry_flush_interval
-          @telemetry = Telemetry.new(telemetry_flush_interval,
+        @telemetry = if telemetry_flush_interval
+          Telemetry.new(telemetry_flush_interval,
             global_tags: global_tags,
             transport_type: @transport_type
           )
+        else
+          nil
         end
 
         @connection = connection_cfg.make_connection(logger: logger, telemetry: telemetry)
diff --git a/lib/datadog/statsd/sender.rb b/lib/datadog/statsd/sender.rb
index c317158..a5e863e 100644
--- a/lib/datadog/statsd/sender.rb
+++ b/lib/datadog/statsd/sender.rb
@@ -20,8 +20,10 @@ def initialize(message_buffer, telemetry: nil, queue_size: UDP_DEFAULT_BUFFER_SI
         @mx = Mutex.new
         @queue_class = queue_class
         @thread_class = thread_class
-        if flush_interval
-          @flush_timer = Datadog::Statsd::Timer.new(flush_interval) { flush(sync: true) }
+        @flush_timer = if flush_interval
+          Datadog::Statsd::Timer.new(flush_interval) { flush(sync: true) }
+        else
+          nil
         end
       end
 
diff --git a/lib/datadog/statsd/timer.rb b/lib/datadog/statsd/timer.rb
index 8c1c894..8eaed44 100644
--- a/lib/datadog/statsd/timer.rb
+++ b/lib/datadog/statsd/timer.rb
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ def initialize(interval, &callback)
         @interval = interval
         @callback = callback
         @stop = true
+        @thread = nil
       end
 
       def start
diff --git a/spec/statsd/version_spec.rb b/spec/statsd/version_spec.rb
index ce33748..a13ec3e 100644
--- a/spec/statsd/version_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/statsd/version_spec.rb
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 describe Datadog::Statsd do
   describe 'VERSION' do
     it 'has a version' do
-      expect(Datadog::Statsd::VERSION).to match /\d+\.\d+\.\d+/
+      expect(Datadog::Statsd::VERSION).to match(/\d+\.\d+\.\d+/)
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/statsd_spec.rb b/spec/statsd_spec.rb
index 26b3689..1c659b2 100644
--- a/spec/statsd_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/statsd_spec.rb
@@ -1014,7 +1014,7 @@
         it 'does not raise error' do
           expect do
             subject.event(title, text, options)
-          end.not_to raise_error(RuntimeError, /payload is too big/)
+          end.not_to raise_error
         end
       end
     end