diff --git a/src/applications/bmqtool/m_bmqtool_poster.cpp b/src/applications/bmqtool/m_bmqtool_poster.cpp
index 3ccd6bd3b4..b4a48bc1b1 100644
--- a/src/applications/bmqtool/m_bmqtool_poster.cpp
+++ b/src/applications/bmqtool/m_bmqtool_poster.cpp
@@ -129,13 +129,15 @@ void PostingContext::postNext()
             }
 
             if (!d_parameters_p->sequentialMessagePattern().empty()) {
-                char buffer[128];
-                length = snprintf(
-                    buffer,
-                    sizeof(buffer),
-                    d_parameters_p->sequentialMessagePattern().c_str(),
-                    d_numMessagesPosted);
-                msg.setDataRef(buffer, length);
+                char        buffer[16];
+                bsl::string messageData(d_allocator_p);
+                length      = snprintf(buffer,
+                                  sizeof(buffer),
+                                  "%09d",
+                                  d_numMessagesPosted);
+                messageData = d_parameters_p->sequentialMessagePattern();
+                messageData.append(buffer);
+                msg.setDataRef(messageData.c_str(), messageData.length());
             }
             else {
                 // Insert latency if required...
diff --git a/src/integration-tests/test_puts_retransmission.py b/src/integration-tests/test_puts_retransmission.py
index b27b08bd1c..ce6a029921 100644
--- a/src/integration-tests/test_puts_retransmission.py
+++ b/src/integration-tests/test_puts_retransmission.py
@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ def error(test_logger, prefix, p1, p2=None):
                 + re.escape(uri[0])  # queue url
                 + r"\|(.+)\|"  # |GUID|
                 + r"msg\s*"  # "msg"
-                + r"(\d+)\|"
+                + r"(\d+)"
             )  # %d
 
             re_confirm = re.compile(
@@ -409,7 +409,7 @@ def start_producer(self, after=BACKLOG_MESSAGES):
                 "--queueuri",
                 self.uri,
                 "--messagepattern",
-                "msg%10d|",
+                "msg",
                 f"--messageProperties={self.mps}",
                 "--log",
                 producer_log,