diff --git a/Changes b/Changes
index 69f92ae923..21cb9047f1 100644
--- a/Changes
+++ b/Changes
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 10.5.x.x (relative to 10.5.9.0)
 ========
 
+Fixes
+-----
+
+VDBObject : metadata() now just returns existing metadata, without modifying it.
 
 
 10.5.9.x (relative to 10.5.8.0)
diff --git a/include/IECoreVDB/VDBObject.h b/include/IECoreVDB/VDBObject.h
index ea2f7eb650..9a84a9bcbd 100644
--- a/include/IECoreVDB/VDBObject.h
+++ b/include/IECoreVDB/VDBObject.h
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ class IECOREVDB_API VDBObject : public IECoreScene::VisibleRenderable
 		Imath::Box3f bound() const override;
 		void render( IECoreScene::Renderer *renderer ) const override;
 
-		IECore::CompoundObjectPtr metadata( const std::string &name );
+		IECore::CompoundObjectPtr metadata( const std::string &name ) const;
 
 		//! Are the grids in this VDBObject unmodified from the vdb file in filename?
 		//! Useful for passing VDB objects to renders by filename instead of memory buffer
diff --git a/src/IECoreVDB/VDBObject.cpp b/src/IECoreVDB/VDBObject.cpp
index 8a3d8244e0..aa73730ea6 100644
--- a/src/IECoreVDB/VDBObject.cpp
+++ b/src/IECoreVDB/VDBObject.cpp
@@ -57,11 +57,23 @@ namespace
 template<typename T>
 Imath::Box<Imath::Vec3<T> > worldBound( const openvdb::GridBase *grid, float padding = 0.50f )
 {
-	openvdb::Vec3i min = grid->metaValue<openvdb::Vec3i>( grid->META_FILE_BBOX_MIN );
-	openvdb::Vec3i max = grid->metaValue<openvdb::Vec3i>( grid->META_FILE_BBOX_MAX );
+	openvdb::CoordBBox vdbBbox;
+	try
+	{
+		vdbBbox.min() = openvdb::Coord( grid->metaValue<openvdb::Vec3i>( grid->META_FILE_BBOX_MIN ) );
+		vdbBbox.max() = openvdb::Coord( grid->metaValue<openvdb::Vec3i>( grid->META_FILE_BBOX_MAX ) );
+	}
+	catch( ... )
+	{
+		// If we don't have metadata available, then hopefully it's because the vdb was freshly created and
+		// hasn't been saved to file yet, which should mean it's fully loaded, and we can call
+		// evalActiveVoxelBoundingBox.
+		// \todo : Can we guarantee that every VDB either is loaded, or has metadata?
+		vdbBbox = grid->evalActiveVoxelBoundingBox();
+	}
 
 	openvdb::Vec3d offset = openvdb::Vec3d( padding );
-	openvdb::BBoxd indexBounds = openvdb::BBoxd( min - offset, max + offset );
+	openvdb::BBoxd indexBounds = openvdb::BBoxd( vdbBbox.min() - offset, vdbBbox.max() + offset );
 	openvdb::BBoxd worldBounds = grid->transform().indexToWorld( indexBounds );
 	openvdb::Vec3d minBB = worldBounds.min();
 	openvdb::Vec3d maxBB = worldBounds.max();
@@ -199,7 +211,7 @@ void VDBObject::render( IECoreScene::Renderer *renderer ) const
 {
 }
 
-IECore::CompoundObjectPtr VDBObject::metadata( const std::string &name )
+IECore::CompoundObjectPtr VDBObject::metadata( const std::string &name ) const
 {
 	CompoundObjectPtr metadata = new CompoundObject();
 
@@ -216,12 +228,7 @@ IECore::CompoundObjectPtr VDBObject::metadata( const std::string &name )
 	}
 	else
 	{
-		openvdb::GridBase::Ptr tmpGrid  = findGrid ( name );
-		if ( tmpGrid )
-		{
-			tmpGrid->addStatsMetadata();
-		}
-		grid = tmpGrid;
+		grid = findGrid ( name );
 	}
 
 	if( !grid )