Cat in cone -- affecting urination?

Hi there,

We have our cat in a cone right now, per our vet's advice, because he was licking a spot on his lower stomach and it needed to heal. (We tried steroids and antibiotics first -- the cone is a last resort.)

The spot is healing nicely, but this has created two strange new issues.

1) Our cat still tries to lick his lower stomach, but because he can't reach it with the cone all that happens is the cone smacks against his genital area. This seems to cause him to have frequent erections, and we worry that in his desire to lick he'll smack his exposed penis with the cone.

2) Now, sometimes when our cat goes to urinate, he seems to be much sloppier than normal. There is urine all over his backside and inner legs, which we have to wipe up since he can't lick it himself.

So I guess my question is do either of these sound like problems? And are they related? We could pack him up and take him to the vet again, but he's under enough stress with the cone. Perhaps the penis / messy urinating thing is no big deal and we can just wait it out. But I wanted to check with you guys. Googling these behaviors hasn't led to much insight. 

Hmmm...this is very interesting and I haven't heard/experienced this issue before and I'm not sure if they are related or not. Does the area around his penis look irritated??

I assume he is wearing one of the plastic collars? Maybe try one of the inflatable collars instead and see if that makes a difference? They are softer and would cause irritation if that is the issue, but would still keep him from licking the area. They can be purchased in many pet stores and also on Amazon.

Perhaps calling the vet to inquired wouldn't be a bad thing.

Sorry I don't have a good answer for you. Perhaps another forumist will be by with some other thoughts.

Thank you both for the tips. I worry that because the hot spot is so low that he'll still be able to lick it, but it might be worth a shot. 

Does anyone else have any thoughts, especially about the messy urination?

Mikki gets hot spots and we put anti itch cream on it. It's very bitter so she spits if she goes after it but it also seems to stop the itching