diff --git a/Lib/logging/handlers.py b/Lib/logging/handlers.py
index 867ef4ebc7600a..2de1008e83fb3f 100644
--- a/Lib/logging/handlers.py
+++ b/Lib/logging/handlers.py
@@ -923,8 +923,8 @@ def mapPriority(self, levelName):
         """
         return self.priority_map.get(levelName, "warning")
 
-    ident = ''          # prepended to all messages
-    append_nul = True   # some old syslog daemons expect a NUL terminator
+    ident = ''                             # prepended to all messages
+    message_separator_character = '\000'   # some old syslog daemons expect a NUL terminator
 
     def emit(self, record):
         """
@@ -934,11 +934,9 @@ def emit(self, record):
         exception information is present, it is NOT sent to the server.
         """
         try:
-            msg = self.format(record)
+            msg = self.format(record) + message_separator_character
             if self.ident:
                 msg = self.ident + msg
-            if self.append_nul:
-                msg += '\000'
 
             # We need to convert record level to lowercase, maybe this will
             # change in the future.