diff --git a/prometheus_client/exposition.py b/prometheus_client/exposition.py
index 93285804..0d471707 100644
--- a/prometheus_client/exposition.py
+++ b/prometheus_client/exposition.py
@@ -18,11 +18,9 @@
 )
 from wsgiref.simple_server import make_server, WSGIRequestHandler, WSGIServer
 
-from packaging.version import Version
-
 from .openmetrics import exposition as openmetrics
 from .registry import CollectorRegistry, REGISTRY
-from .utils import floatToGoString
+from .utils import floatToGoString, parse_version
 
 __all__ = (
     'CONTENT_TYPE_LATEST',
@@ -346,7 +344,7 @@ def choose_encoder(accept_header: str) -> Tuple[Callable[[CollectorRegistry], by
             # mimetype.
             if not version:
                 return (partial(openmetrics.generate_latest, escaping=openmetrics.UNDERSCORES, version="1.0.0"), openmetrics.CONTENT_TYPE_LATEST)
-            if version and Version(version) >= Version('1.0.0'):
+            if version and parse_version(version) >= (1, 0, 0):
                 return (partial(openmetrics.generate_latest, escaping=escaping, version=version),
                         f'application/openmetrics-text; version={version}; charset=utf-8; escaping=' + str(escaping))
         elif accepted.split(';')[0].strip() == 'text/plain':
@@ -355,7 +353,7 @@ def choose_encoder(accept_header: str) -> Tuple[Callable[[CollectorRegistry], by
             escaping = _get_escaping(toks)
             # Only return an escaping header if we have a good version and
             # mimetype.
-            if version and Version(version) >= Version('1.0.0'):
+            if version and parse_version(version) >= (1, 0, 0):
                 return (partial(generate_latest, escaping=escaping),
                         CONTENT_TYPE_LATEST + '; escaping=' + str(escaping))
     return generate_latest, CONTENT_TYPE_PLAIN_0_0_4
diff --git a/prometheus_client/openmetrics/exposition.py b/prometheus_client/openmetrics/exposition.py
index 1dc05c5b..5e69e463 100644
--- a/prometheus_client/openmetrics/exposition.py
+++ b/prometheus_client/openmetrics/exposition.py
@@ -4,9 +4,7 @@
 from sys import maxunicode
 from typing import Callable
 
-from packaging.version import Version
-
-from ..utils import floatToGoString
+from ..utils import floatToGoString, parse_version
 from ..validation import (
     _is_valid_legacy_labelname, _is_valid_legacy_metric_name,
 )
@@ -94,7 +92,7 @@ def generate_latest(registry, escaping=UNDERSCORES, version="1.0.0"):
                     timestamp = f' {s.timestamp}'
                 
                 # Skip native histogram samples entirely if version < 2.0.0
-                if s.native_histogram and Version(version) < Version('2.0.0'):
+                if s.native_histogram and parse_version(version) < (2, 0, 0):
                     continue
                 
                 native_histogram = ''
diff --git a/prometheus_client/utils.py b/prometheus_client/utils.py
index 0d2b0948..87b75ca8 100644
--- a/prometheus_client/utils.py
+++ b/prometheus_client/utils.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import math
+from typing import Union
 
 INF = float("inf")
 MINUS_INF = float("-inf")
@@ -22,3 +23,14 @@ def floatToGoString(d):
             mantissa = f'{s[0]}.{s[1:dot]}{s[dot + 1:]}'.rstrip('0.')
             return f'{mantissa}e+0{dot - 1}'
         return s
+
+
+def parse_version(version_str: str) -> tuple[Union[int, str], ...]:
+    version: list[Union[int, str]] = []
+    for part in version_str.split('.'):
+        try:
+            version.append(int(part))
+        except ValueError:
+            version.append(part)
+
+    return tuple(version)