diff --git a/go/vt/mysqlctl/mysqld.go b/go/vt/mysqlctl/mysqld.go
index 72c1d8f6658..d7435705a8a 100644
--- a/go/vt/mysqlctl/mysqld.go
+++ b/go/vt/mysqlctl/mysqld.go
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ import (
 	"vitess.io/vitess/config"
 	"vitess.io/vitess/go/mysql"
 	"vitess.io/vitess/go/mysql/sqlerror"
+	"vitess.io/vitess/go/osutil"
 	"vitess.io/vitess/go/protoutil"
 	"vitess.io/vitess/go/sqltypes"
 	"vitess.io/vitess/go/vt/dbconfigs"
@@ -1332,18 +1333,7 @@ func hostMetrics(ctx context.Context, cnf *Mycnf) (*mysqlctlpb.HostMetricsRespon
 
 	_ = func() error {
 		metric := newMetric("loadavg")
-		if runtime.GOOS != "linux" {
-			return withError(metric, fmt.Errorf("loadavg metric is only available on Linux"))
-		}
-		content, err := os.ReadFile("/proc/loadavg")
-		if err != nil {
-			return withError(metric, err)
-		}
-		fields := strings.Fields(string(content))
-		if len(fields) == 0 {
-			return withError(metric, fmt.Errorf("unexpected /proc/loadavg content"))
-		}
-		loadAvg, err := strconv.ParseFloat(fields[0], 64)
+		loadAvg, err := osutil.LoadAvg()
 		if err != nil {
 			return withError(metric, err)
 		}
diff --git a/go/vt/vttablet/tabletserver/throttle/base/self_metric_loadavg.go b/go/vt/vttablet/tabletserver/throttle/base/self_metric_loadavg.go
index 40a2878421a..640a2153698 100644
--- a/go/vt/vttablet/tabletserver/throttle/base/self_metric_loadavg.go
+++ b/go/vt/vttablet/tabletserver/throttle/base/self_metric_loadavg.go
@@ -18,22 +18,12 @@ package base
 
 import (
 	"context"
-	"fmt"
-	"os"
 	"runtime"
-	"strconv"
-	"strings"
 
+	"vitess.io/vitess/go/osutil"
 	"vitess.io/vitess/go/vt/vttablet/tabletserver/connpool"
 )
 
-var (
-	loadavgOnlyAvailableOnLinuxMetric = &ThrottleMetric{
-		Scope: SelfScope,
-		Err:   fmt.Errorf("loadavg metric is only available on Linux"),
-	}
-)
-
 var _ SelfMetric = registerSelfMetric(&LoadAvgSelfMetric{})
 
 type LoadAvgSelfMetric struct {
@@ -56,26 +46,13 @@ func (m *LoadAvgSelfMetric) RequiresConn() bool {
 }
 
 func (m *LoadAvgSelfMetric) Read(ctx context.Context, throttler ThrottlerMetricsPublisher, conn *connpool.Conn) *ThrottleMetric {
-	if runtime.GOOS != "linux" {
-		return loadavgOnlyAvailableOnLinuxMetric
-	}
 	metric := &ThrottleMetric{
 		Scope: SelfScope,
 	}
-	{
-		content, err := os.ReadFile("/proc/loadavg")
-		if err != nil {
-			return metric.WithError(err)
-		}
-		fields := strings.Fields(string(content))
-		if len(fields) == 0 {
-			return metric.WithError(fmt.Errorf("unexpected /proc/loadavg content"))
-		}
-		loadAvg, err := strconv.ParseFloat(fields[0], 64)
-		if err != nil {
-			return metric.WithError(err)
-		}
-		metric.Value = loadAvg / float64(runtime.NumCPU())
+	val, err := osutil.LoadAvg()
+	if err != nil {
+		return metric.WithError(err)
 	}
+	metric.Value = val / float64(runtime.NumCPU())
 	return metric
 }