diff --git a/src/taoensso/carmine/message_queue.clj b/src/taoensso/carmine/message_queue.clj
index ee51917e..2c5e1b1f 100644
--- a/src/taoensso/carmine/message_queue.clj
+++ b/src/taoensso/carmine/message_queue.clj
@@ -497,9 +497,9 @@
             :a [qk-a qk-b]
             :b [qk-b qk-a]))]
 
-    (try ; NB conn's read-timeout may be insufficient!
+    (enc/try* ;  NB conn's read-timeout may be insufficient!
       (wcar conn-opts (car/brpoplpush qk-src qk-dst secs-dbl))
-      (catch Throwable _ nil))))
+      (catch :all-but-critical _ nil))))
 
 (comment (interruptible-sleep {} :foo :a 2000))
 
@@ -527,7 +527,7 @@
 
             t0 (enc/now-nano*)
             result
-            (try
+            (enc/try*
               (let [mq-msg
                     {:qname   qname    :mid     mid
                      :message mcontent :attempt attempt
@@ -538,7 +538,7 @@
 
                 (handler mq-msg))
 
-              (catch Throwable t
+              (catch :all-but-critical t
                 {:status :error :throwable t}))
 
             handling-time-ns (- (enc/now-nano*) t0)
@@ -720,7 +720,7 @@
                                :backoff-ms backoff-ms})
                             (Thread/sleep (int backoff-ms))))))
 
-                    (try
+                    (enc/try*
                       (let [resp
                             (wcar conn-opts
                               (dequeue qname worker-opts)
@@ -731,7 +731,7 @@
                           (throw t)
                           (future-pool
                             (fn []
-                              (try
+                              (enc/try*
                                 (let [[poll-reply ndry-runs & queue-counts] resp
                                       {:keys [nqueued]} (-queue-status queue-counts)]
 
@@ -754,8 +754,8 @@
                                      :ssb-handling-time-ns ssb-handling-time-ns})
 
                                   (nconsecutive-errors* :set 0))
-                                (catch Throwable t (loop-error! t)))))))
-                      (catch           Throwable t (loop-error! t)))
+                                (catch :all-but-critical t (loop-error! t)))))))
+                      (catch           :all-but-critical t (loop-error! t)))
 
                     (when-let [ms (throttle-ms-fn)] (Thread/sleep (int ms)))
                     (recur (inc nloops))))))]