diff --git a/plugins/outputs/dynatrace/dynatrace.go b/plugins/outputs/dynatrace/dynatrace.go
index 596366ae8..522512f7f 100644
--- a/plugins/outputs/dynatrace/dynatrace.go
+++ b/plugins/outputs/dynatrace/dynatrace.go
@@ -28,16 +28,15 @@ var (
 	maxMetricKeyLen       = 250
 )
 
-var counts map[string]string
-var sent = 0
-
 // Dynatrace Configuration for the Dynatrace output plugin
 type Dynatrace struct {
-	URL      string            `toml:"url"`
-	APIToken string            `toml:"api_token"`
-	Prefix   string            `toml:"prefix"`
-	Log      telegraf.Logger   `toml:"-"`
-	Timeout  internal.Duration `toml:"timeout"`
+	URL         string            `toml:"url"`
+	APIToken    string            `toml:"api_token"`
+	Prefix      string            `toml:"prefix"`
+	Log         telegraf.Logger   `toml:"-"`
+	Timeout     internal.Duration `toml:"timeout"`
+	State       map[string]string
+	SendCounter int
 
 	tls.ClientConfig
 
@@ -117,6 +116,8 @@ func (d *Dynatrace) normalize(s string, max int) (string, error) {
 		normalizedString = normalizedString[:len(normalizedString)-1]
 	}
 
+	normalizedString = strings.ReplaceAll(normalizedString, "..", "_")
+
 	if len(normalizedString) == 0 {
 		return "", fmt.Errorf("error normalizing the string: %s", s)
 	}
@@ -198,7 +199,7 @@ func (d *Dynatrace) Write(metrics []telegraf.Metric) error {
 					var delta float64 = 0
 
 					// Check if LastValue exists
-					if lastvalue, ok := counts[metricID+tagb.String()]; ok {
+					if lastvalue, ok := d.State[metricID+tagb.String()]; ok {
 						// Convert Strings to Floats
 						floatLastValue, err := strconv.ParseFloat(lastvalue, 32)
 						if err != nil {
@@ -213,7 +214,7 @@ func (d *Dynatrace) Write(metrics []telegraf.Metric) error {
 							fmt.Fprintf(&buf, "%s%s count,delta=%f\n", metricID, tagb.String(), delta)
 						}
 					}
-					counts[metricID+tagb.String()] = value
+					d.State[metricID+tagb.String()] = value
 
 				default:
 					fmt.Fprintf(&buf, "%s%s %v\n", metricID, tagb.String(), value)
@@ -221,11 +222,11 @@ func (d *Dynatrace) Write(metrics []telegraf.Metric) error {
 			}
 		}
 	}
-	sent++
+	d.SendCounter++
 	// in typical interval of 10s, we will clean the counter state once in 24h which is 8640 iterations
 
-	if sent%8640 == 0 {
-		counts = make(map[string]string)
+	if d.SendCounter%8640 == 0 {
+		d.State = make(map[string]string)
 	}
 	return d.send(buf.Bytes())
 }
@@ -269,7 +270,7 @@ func (d *Dynatrace) send(msg []byte) error {
 }
 
 func (d *Dynatrace) Init() error {
-	counts = make(map[string]string)
+	d.State = make(map[string]string)
 	if len(d.URL) == 0 {
 		d.Log.Infof("Dynatrace URL is empty, defaulting to OneAgent metrics interface")
 		d.URL = oneAgentMetricsUrl
@@ -297,7 +298,8 @@ func (d *Dynatrace) Init() error {
 func init() {
 	outputs.Add("dynatrace", func() telegraf.Output {
 		return &Dynatrace{
-			Timeout: internal.Duration{Duration: time.Second * 5},
+			Timeout:     internal.Duration{Duration: time.Second * 5},
+			SendCounter: 0,
 		}
 	})
 }