diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index eb64d8f..3ac4f75 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 Monolog Handler to forward logs to Datadog using async requests.
 
 ## Requirements
-- PHP 8.0+
+- PHP 8.1+
 - PHP Curl
 
 ## Installation
diff --git a/composer.json b/composer.json
index eabbc96..b34ac4c 100644
--- a/composer.json
+++ b/composer.json
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
     }
   ],
   "require": {
-    "php": "^8.0",
+    "php": "^8.1",
     "ext-curl": "*",
     "monolog/monolog": "^3.0",
     "guzzlehttp/guzzle": "^7.5"
diff --git a/src/Monolog/Formatter/DatadogFormatter.php b/src/Monolog/Formatter/DatadogFormatter.php
deleted file mode 100644
index bcb83ff..0000000
--- a/src/Monolog/Formatter/DatadogFormatter.php
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,35 +0,0 @@
-<?php
-
-namespace sgoettsch\MonologDatadog\Formatter;
-
-use Monolog\Formatter\JsonFormatter;
-use Monolog\Level;
-use Monolog\Logger;
-use Monolog\LogRecord;
-use stdClass;
-
-class DatadogFormatter extends JsonFormatter
-{
-    protected bool $includeStacktraces = true;
-
-    public function format(LogRecord $record): string
-    {
-        $normalized = $this->normalize($record);
-
-        if (isset($normalized['context']) && $normalized['context'] === []) {
-            $normalized['context'] = new stdClass;
-        }
-
-        if (isset($normalized['extra']) && $normalized['extra'] === []) {
-            $normalized['extra'] = new stdClass;
-        }
-
-        $normalized['status'] = match ($record['level']) {
-            Level::Debug, Level::Info => 'info',
-            Level::Notice, Level::Warning => 'warning',
-            Level::Error, Level::Alert, Level::Critical, Level::Emergency => 'error',
-        };
-
-        return $this->toJson($normalized, true);
-    }
-}
diff --git a/src/Monolog/Handler/DatadogHandler.php b/src/Monolog/Handler/DatadogHandler.php
index 3654d7c..0ef3cdd 100644
--- a/src/Monolog/Handler/DatadogHandler.php
+++ b/src/Monolog/Handler/DatadogHandler.php
@@ -3,13 +3,13 @@
 namespace sgoettsch\MonologDatadog\Handler;
 
 use JsonException;
+use Monolog\Formatter\JsonFormatter;
 use Monolog\Handler\MissingExtensionException;
 use Monolog\Level;
 use Monolog\Logger;
 use Monolog\Handler\AbstractProcessingHandler;
 use Monolog\Formatter\FormatterInterface;
 use Monolog\LogRecord;
-use sgoettsch\MonologDatadog\Formatter\DatadogFormatter;
 use GuzzleHttp\Client;
 use GuzzleHttp\Psr7\Request;
 
@@ -83,7 +83,12 @@ protected function send(LogRecord $record): void
 
         $url = $this->host . '/api/v2/logs';
 
-        $payLoad = json_decode($record['formatted'], true, 512, JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR);
+        $formated = json_decode($record->formatted, true, 512, JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR);
+
+        // Datadog requires the log level in the status attribute.
+        $formated['status'] = strtolower($record['level_name']);
+
+        $payLoad = $formated;
         $payLoad['ddsource'] = $source;
         $payLoad['ddtags'] = $tags;
         $payLoad['hostname'] = $hostname;
@@ -157,11 +162,9 @@ protected function getTags(LogRecord $record): string
 
     /**
      * Returns the default formatter to use with this handler
-     *
-     * @return DatadogFormatter
      */
     protected function getDefaultFormatter(): FormatterInterface
     {
-        return new DatadogFormatter();
+        return new JsonFormatter();
     }
 }