My older male Darwin has serious pore blockage on his tail, lots of
blackheads.  In fact last night I was attending to several of them and a
large quantity of oil came out near the tip of his tail when I gently
squeezed it (oh boy!).
 
I would like to make more serious attempts to pay more attention to his tail
as the blackheads seem to go hand in hand with my older ferrets as well.  I
have tried lathering his tail up with hand soap and scraping the skin gently
with my fingernail, but this seems to offer only cosmetic and temporary
relief from the problem, in addition his tail hair is becoming sparse as
more pores become blocked-up.
 
If anyone has found a safe, relatively painless method to deal with this, I
would be greatful if you could share it with me.
 
                Thanks from Andy, Darwin, Erasmus, Ruck, and Jumper.
[Posted in FML issue 1656]