diff --git a/ddtrace/tracer/metrics_test.go b/ddtrace/tracer/metrics_test.go
index 4aad5e373c..64548fce86 100644
--- a/ddtrace/tracer/metrics_test.go
+++ b/ddtrace/tracer/metrics_test.go
@@ -55,12 +55,36 @@ func TestReportHealthMetrics(t *testing.T) {
 
 	tracer.StartSpan("operation").Finish()
 	flush(1)
-	tg.Wait(assert, 3, 10*time.Second)
+	tg.Wait(assert, 4, 10*time.Second)
 
 	counts := tg.Counts()
 	assert.Equal(int64(1), counts["datadog.tracer.spans_started"])
 	assert.Equal(int64(1), counts["datadog.tracer.spans_finished"])
 	assert.Equal(int64(0), counts["datadog.tracer.traces_dropped"])
+	assert.Equal(int64(1), counts["datadog.tracer.queue.enqueued.traces"])
+}
+
+func TestEnqueuedTracesHealthMetric(t *testing.T) {
+	assert := assert.New(t)
+	var tg statsdtest.TestStatsdClient
+
+	defer func(old time.Duration) { statsInterval = old }(statsInterval)
+	statsInterval = time.Nanosecond
+
+	tracer, _, flush, stop := startTestTracer(t, withStatsdClient(&tg))
+	defer stop()
+
+	for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
+		tracer.StartSpan("operation").Finish()
+	}
+	flush(3)
+	tg.Wait(assert, 1, 10*time.Second)
+
+	counts := tg.Counts()
+	assert.Equal(int64(3), counts["datadog.tracer.queue.enqueued.traces"])
+	w, ok := tracer.traceWriter.(*agentTraceWriter)
+	assert.True(ok)
+	assert.Equal(uint32(0), w.tracesQueued)
 }
 
 func TestTracerMetrics(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/ddtrace/tracer/writer.go b/ddtrace/tracer/writer.go
index 5ceadcb2e6..cff333c8c4 100644
--- a/ddtrace/tracer/writer.go
+++ b/ddtrace/tracer/writer.go
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"strconv"
 	"sync"
+	"sync/atomic"
 	"time"
 
 	globalinternal "gopkg.in/DataDog/dd-trace-go.v1/internal"
@@ -50,6 +51,8 @@ type agentTraceWriter struct {
 
 	// statsd is used to send metrics
 	statsd globalinternal.StatsdClient
+
+	tracesQueued uint32
 }
 
 func newAgentTraceWriter(c *config, s *prioritySampler, statsdClient globalinternal.StatsdClient) *agentTraceWriter {
@@ -67,6 +70,7 @@ func (h *agentTraceWriter) add(trace []*span) {
 		h.statsd.Incr("datadog.tracer.traces_dropped", []string{"reason:encoding_error"}, 1)
 		log.Error("Error encoding msgpack: %v", err)
 	}
+	atomic.AddUint32(&h.tracesQueued, 1) // TODO: This does not differentiate between complete traces and partial chunks
 	if h.payload.size() > payloadSizeLimit {
 		h.statsd.Incr("datadog.tracer.flush_triggered", []string{"reason:size"}, 1)
 		h.flush()
@@ -94,6 +98,7 @@ func (h *agentTraceWriter) flush() {
 			// collection to avoid a memory leak when references to this object
 			// may still be kept by faulty transport implementations or the
 			// standard library. See dd-trace-go#976
+			h.statsd.Count("datadog.tracer.queue.enqueued.traces", int64(atomic.SwapUint32(&h.tracesQueued, 0)), nil, 1)
 			p.clear()
 
 			<-h.climit
diff --git a/ddtrace/tracer/writer_test.go b/ddtrace/tracer/writer_test.go
index bcdf529a58..224ae2a1ca 100644
--- a/ddtrace/tracer/writer_test.go
+++ b/ddtrace/tracer/writer_test.go
@@ -386,12 +386,14 @@ func TestTraceWriterFlushRetries(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	sentCounts := map[string]int64{
-		"datadog.tracer.decode_error": 1,
-		"datadog.tracer.flush_bytes":  185,
-		"datadog.tracer.flush_traces": 1,
+		"datadog.tracer.decode_error":          1,
+		"datadog.tracer.flush_bytes":           185,
+		"datadog.tracer.flush_traces":          1,
+		"datadog.tracer.queue.enqueued.traces": 1,
 	}
 	droppedCounts := map[string]int64{
-		"datadog.tracer.traces_dropped": 1,
+		"datadog.tracer.queue.enqueued.traces": 1,
+		"datadog.tracer.traces_dropped":        1,
 	}
 
 	ss := []*span{makeSpan(0)}