diff --git a/kafka_schema_registry/__init__.py b/kafka_schema_registry/__init__.py
index bae3f41..60f4b37 100644
--- a/kafka_schema_registry/__init__.py
+++ b/kafka_schema_registry/__init__.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 from kafka.admin import NewTopic
 from kafka.errors import TopicAlreadyExistsError, NoBrokersAvailable
 from requests import request
+from request.exceptions import JSONDecodeError
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -86,9 +87,14 @@ def publish_schemas(
                 'Content-Type': 'application/json'
                 }
             )
-        if 'id' not in value_resp.json():
+        try:
+            obj = value_resp.json()
+        except json.JSONDecodeError:
+            logger.error(f'Error decoding response: {value_resp.text}')
+            raise
+        if 'id' not in obj:
             logger.error(f'No id in response: {value_resp.json()}')
-        value_schema_id = value_resp.json()['id']
+        value_schema_id = obj['id']
 
     key_schema_id = None
     if key_schema is not None:
diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
index 0d7066b..9923f15 100644
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
-pytest==6.2.5
-pytest-cov==3.0.0
-flake8==4.0.1
-responses==0.17.0
-twine==3.7.1
-wheel==0.37.1
+pytest==8.3.4
+pytest-cov==6.0.0
+flake8==7.1.1
+responses==0.25.3
+twine==6.0.1
+wheel==0.45.1
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 21c60b8..42ea387 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-fastavro==1.4.9
+fastavro==1.9.7
 kafka-python==2.0.2
-requests==2.27.1
+requests==2.32.3