diff --git a/ext/pg_connection.c b/ext/pg_connection.c
index 720446585..8c9524733 100644
--- a/ext/pg_connection.c
+++ b/ext/pg_connection.c
@@ -2339,21 +2339,12 @@ pg_rb_io_wait(VALUE io, VALUE events, VALUE timeout) {
 static void *
 wait_socket_readable( VALUE self, struct timeval *ptimeout, void *(*is_readable)(PGconn *))
 {
-	VALUE socket_io;
 	VALUE ret;
 	void *retval;
 	struct timeval aborttime={0,0}, currtime, waittime;
 	VALUE wait_timeout = Qnil;
 	PGconn *conn = pg_get_pgconn(self);
 
-	socket_io = pgconn_socket_io(self);
-
-	/* Check for connection errors (PQisBusy is true on connection errors) */
-	if ( PQconsumeInput(conn) == 0 ) {
-		pgconn_close_socket_io(self);
-		rb_raise( rb_eConnectionBad, "PQconsumeInput() %s", PQerrorMessage(conn) );
-	}
-
 	if ( ptimeout ) {
 		gettimeofday(&currtime, NULL);
 		timeradd(&currtime, ptimeout, &aborttime);
@@ -2368,6 +2359,7 @@ wait_socket_readable( VALUE self, struct timeval *ptimeout, void *(*is_readable)
 
 		/* Is the given timeout valid? */
 		if( !ptimeout || (waittime.tv_sec >= 0 && waittime.tv_usec >= 0) ){
+			VALUE socket_io = pgconn_socket_io(self);
 			/* Wait for the socket to become readable before checking again */
 			ret = pg_rb_io_wait(socket_io, RB_INT2NUM(PG_RUBY_IO_READABLE), wait_timeout);
 		} else {
diff --git a/spec/pg/connection_spec.rb b/spec/pg/connection_spec.rb
index bd9164bf7..d82528c85 100644
--- a/spec/pg/connection_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/pg/connection_spec.rb
@@ -1449,15 +1449,15 @@ def interrupt_thread(exc=nil)
 		conn.finish
 	end
 
-	it "block should raise ConnectionBad for a closed connection" do
+	it "consume_input should raise ConnectionBad for a closed connection" do
 		serv = TCPServer.new( '127.0.0.1', 54320 )
 		conn = described_class.connect_start( '127.0.0.1', 54320, "", "", "me", "xxxx", "somedb" )
 		while [PG::CONNECTION_STARTED, PG::CONNECTION_MADE].include?(conn.connect_poll)
 			sleep 0.1
 		end
 		serv.close
-		expect{ conn.block }.to raise_error(PG::ConnectionBad, /server closed the connection unexpectedly/)
-		expect{ conn.block }.to raise_error(PG::ConnectionBad, /can't get socket descriptor|connection not open/)
+		expect{ conn.consume_input }.to raise_error(PG::ConnectionBad, /server closed the connection unexpectedly/)
+		expect{ conn.consume_input }.to raise_error(PG::ConnectionBad, /can't get socket descriptor|connection not open/)
 	end
 
 	it "calls the block supplied to wait_for_notify with the notify payload if it accepts " +