diff --git a/litellm/proxy/_experimental/mcp_server/openapi_oauth2_endpoints.py b/litellm/proxy/_experimental/mcp_server/openapi_oauth2_endpoints.py
index b39093d465e..4de3db81087 100644
--- a/litellm/proxy/_experimental/mcp_server/openapi_oauth2_endpoints.py
+++ b/litellm/proxy/_experimental/mcp_server/openapi_oauth2_endpoints.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ import json
 import secrets
 import time
 from typing import Dict, Optional
-from urllib.parse import parse_qs, urlencode
+from urllib.parse import parse_qs, urlencode, urlparse, urlunparse
 
 import httpx
 from fastapi import APIRouter, Depends, HTTPException, Query, Request
@@ -248,9 +248,12 @@ async def openapi_oauth2_connect(
     if server.scopes:
         params["scope"] = " ".join(server.scopes)
 
-    # Use "&" if the base URL already contains query parameters, otherwise "?"
-    sep = "&" if "?" in server.authorization_url else "?"
-    authorization_url = f"{server.authorization_url}{sep}{urlencode(params)}"
+    # Merge params into the base URL safely using urllib.parse to handle edge cases
+    # (existing query string, fragments, trailing separators, etc.).
+    parsed = urlparse(server.authorization_url)
+    existing_qs = parse_qs(parsed.query, keep_blank_values=True)
+    merged_qs = {**existing_qs, **{k: [v] for k, v in params.items()}}
+    authorization_url = urlunparse(parsed._replace(query=urlencode(merged_qs, doseq=True)))
     server_name = server.server_name or server.name or server_id
 
     verbose_proxy_logger.debug(
@@ -614,6 +617,21 @@ async def openapi_oauth2_status(
         )
         connected = False
 
+    # Seed the cache for the not-connected case so subsequent 2-second polls skip
+    # the DB during the pre-connection waiting window.  When not-connected, we write
+    # None (the "no credential" sentinel) which _check_byok_credential also uses.
+    # For connected=True we do NOT write here: the callback's _invalidate_byok_cred_cache
+    # already cleared the entry, and polling stops immediately after we return True.
+    if not connected:
+        try:
+            from litellm.proxy._experimental.mcp_server.server import (
+                _write_byok_cred_cache,
+            )
+
+            _write_byok_cred_cache(user_id, server_id, None)
+        except Exception:
+            pass  # Best-effort; never block the response
+
     return JSONResponse(
         {"connected": connected, "server_id": server_id, "server_name": server_name}
     )
diff --git a/litellm/proxy/_experimental/mcp_server/server.py b/litellm/proxy/_experimental/mcp_server/server.py
index cdabc653f83..af39c4241fa 100644
--- a/litellm/proxy/_experimental/mcp_server/server.py
+++ b/litellm/proxy/_experimental/mcp_server/server.py
@@ -1585,6 +1585,7 @@ if MCP_AVAILABLE:
         if cached is not None:
             credential, ts = cached
             if time.monotonic() - ts < _BYOK_CRED_CACHE_TTL:
+                _byok_cred_cache.move_to_end(cache_key)  # promote to MRU
                 return credential
 
         from litellm.proxy._experimental.mcp_server.db import get_user_credential
@@ -1657,6 +1658,7 @@ if MCP_AVAILABLE:
         if cached is not None:
             cached_cred, ts = cached
             if time.monotonic() - ts < _BYOK_CRED_CACHE_TTL:
+                _byok_cred_cache.move_to_end(cache_key)  # promote to MRU
                 if cached_cred is None:
                     raise HTTPException(
                         status_code=401,