diff --git a/src/lib/ares_process.c b/src/lib/ares_process.c
index d73a6fd9..f1001105 100644
--- a/src/lib/ares_process.c
+++ b/src/lib/ares_process.c
@@ -996,9 +996,28 @@ ares_status_t ares__send_query(struct query *query, struct timeval *now)
     }
 
     conn = ares__llist_node_val(node);
+
     if (ares__socket_write(channel, conn->fd, query->qbuf, query->qlen) == -1) {
-      /* FIXME: Handle EAGAIN here since it likely can happen. */
-      status = ARES_ESERVFAIL;
+      if (try_again(SOCKERRNO)) {      
+        status = ARES_ESERVFAIL;
+      } else {
+        status = ARES_ECONNREFUSED;
+      }
+
+      if (status == ARES_ECONNREFUSED) {
+        handle_conn_error(conn, ARES_TRUE, status);
+
+        /* This query wasn't yet bound to the connection, need to manually
+         * requeue it and return an appropriate error */
+        status = ares__requeue_query(query, now, status);
+        if (status == ARES_ETIMEOUT) {
+          status = ARES_ECONNREFUSED;
+        }
+        return status;
+      }
+
+      /* FIXME: Handle EAGAIN here since it likely can happen. Right now we
+       * just requeue to a different server/connection. */
       server_increment_failures(server);
       status = ares__requeue_query(query, now, status);