E-collar problems - How to keep a cat from licking a wound?

The only advice I can give is to keep trying the collar. We had a cat with an abscess on the top of one of hind legs that had to be drained. She hated the collar and managed to get it off three times before she finally gave up trying. Every time she got the collar off we put it back on. Now she was not a happy cat and mostly laid around looking miserable, but her wound healed. By the last day or so she had gotten quite good at jumping on furniture with her collar on - at first it threw off her balance. One thing I would say is if you use a covered litter box take the cover off, our Jenny could not get in and out of the litter box with the collar on. Good luck - hope Gorgeous is all better soon!