def _send(key, value, metric_type):
    """Send the specified value to the statsd daemon via UDP without a
    direct socket connection.

    :param str value: The properly formatted statsd counter value

    """
    if STATSD_PREFIX:
        key = '.'.join([STATSD_PREFIX, key])
    try:
        STATSD_SOCKET.sendto('{0}:{1}|{2}'.format(key,
                                                  value,
                                                  metric_type).encode(),
                             STATSD_ADDR)
    except socket.error:
        LOGGER.exception(SOCKET_ERROR)