diff --git a/evcache-core/src/main/java/com/netflix/evcache/EVCacheImpl.java b/evcache-core/src/main/java/com/netflix/evcache/EVCacheImpl.java
index 711ea90f..6817dd09 100644
--- a/evcache-core/src/main/java/com/netflix/evcache/EVCacheImpl.java
+++ b/evcache-core/src/main/java/com/netflix/evcache/EVCacheImpl.java
@@ -2961,7 +2961,7 @@ public long decr(String key, long by, long defaultVal, int timeToLive) throws EV
             int index = 0;
             for (EVCacheClient client : clients) {
                 vals[index] = client.decr(evcKey.getDerivedKey(client.isDuetClient(), client.getHashingAlgorithm(), client.shouldEncodeHashKey(), client.getMaxDigestBytes(), client.getMaxHashLength(), client.getBaseEncoder()), by, defaultVal, timeToLive);
-                if (vals[index] != -1 && currentValue < vals[index]) {
+                if (vals[index] != -1 && (currentValue == -1 || vals[index] < currentValue)) {
                     currentValue = vals[index];
                     if (log.isDebugEnabled()) log.debug("DECR : APP " + _appName + " current value = " + currentValue + " for key : " + key + " from client : " + client);
                 }
diff --git a/evcache-core/src/main/java/com/netflix/evcache/pool/EVCacheClient.java b/evcache-core/src/main/java/com/netflix/evcache/pool/EVCacheClient.java
index 3d54e497..6f0fbd74 100644
--- a/evcache-core/src/main/java/com/netflix/evcache/pool/EVCacheClient.java
+++ b/evcache-core/src/main/java/com/netflix/evcache/pool/EVCacheClient.java
@@ -270,6 +270,12 @@ public void reportWrongKeyReturned() {
     private boolean ensureWriteQueueSize(MemcachedNode node, String key, EVCache.Call call) throws EVCacheException {
         if (node instanceof EVCacheNode) {
             final EVCacheNode evcNode = (EVCacheNode) node;
+            if (!evcNode.isAvailable(call)) {
+                incrementFailure(EVCacheMetricsFactory.INACTIVE_NODE, call);
+                if (log.isDebugEnabled()) log.debug("Inactive Node " + evcNode + " on " + call + " operation for app : " + appName
+                        + "; zone : " + zone + "; key : " + key);
+                return false;
+            }
             int i = 0;
             while (true) {
                 final int size = evcNode.getWriteQueueSize();
@@ -847,10 +853,18 @@ public Map<String, CachedData> getAllChunks(String key) throws EVCacheReadQueueE
     }
 
     public long incr(String key, long by, long defaultVal, int timeToLive) throws EVCacheException {
+        final MemcachedNode node = evcacheMemcachedClient.getEVCacheNode(key);
+        if (!ensureWriteQueueSize(node, key, Call.INCR)) {
+            return -1;
+        }
         return evcacheMemcachedClient.incr(key, by, defaultVal, timeToLive);
     }
 
     public long decr(String key, long by, long defaultVal, int timeToLive) throws EVCacheException {
+        final MemcachedNode node = evcacheMemcachedClient.getEVCacheNode(key);
+        if (!ensureWriteQueueSize(node, key, Call.DECR)) {
+            return -1;
+        }
         return evcacheMemcachedClient.decr(key, by, defaultVal, timeToLive);
     }