I am thinking about adopting from a shelter a 5 month old Tripawd who had back leg amputated about two weeks ago.  I am getting different stories from the vet who works with the kitten and the head of staff about his remaining back leg as it is not working properly.  

Apparently, the kitten was hit by a car in September and brought to the shelter.  At the time he was dragging both back legs.  They waited a bit and found one leg had some mobility but they had to amputate the other as he was dragging it and it had open sores.  Then this is where stories differ..

head of staff says his remaining back leg is deformed from accident while the vet says she believes he never walked before and is trying to figure out how to use his remaining back leg.  (Seems unlikely that a cat would be hit by a car if it couldn’t walk but idk?).  The vet says he uses the remaining leg as a pivot but doesn’t really understand how to walk.  

I didn’t see him walking because his cage is very small at the shelter.  I did see him stand up and he moved himself to the front of the cage to get pets from me.  He also had a spinal injury from accident and was unable to urinate when he first got there but they say he’s using the litter box now for pee but has diarhea and it’s getting on his back end.  But vet says this wasn’t a problem before.  

Staff at the shelter also told me his tail was paralyzed and they should have amputated but the vet says this is not true although his tail was dragging and missing hair when I saw him.   I did have a tripawd cat before but he was born that way.  

The tripawd thing doesn’t worry me but I’m wondering should I be worried about the other back leg not functioning correctly (whether deformed or not used ever before)?  What about the tail?  Does anyone have experience with a cat soiling himself after amputation?  Should I be worried about the spinal injury?  What about his initially not being able to urinate?  

I don’t even know what questions to ask or what to be more concerned about at this point and am wondering how much im taking on.   Any advice?  Thoughts?  People who can weigh in and tell me what their experiences have been.