My little girl Bobbie had a case of rat tail going from tail tip to mid tail. I noticed a lot of dry skin and huge black heads, some as big as a pin head. I removed the really big black heads and scrubbed her tail with a neutragena (yeah, its spelled wrong) product with that stuff that gets rid of dead skin and clears pores. It had little bitty grits in it. The full name slips my mind- I think it has that alpha hydroxy stuff in it. I did it maybe once or twice a week for about three months. I told her it was girl time - I use the stuff on my face. It pulled out a mess of blackheads and the dead skin on her tail just seemed to disapear. She got a nice healthy looking pink tail, and all her fur came back in. It looks nicer then the rest of her fur- now we tell her she has such a pretty tail! Could rat tail be a major case of cloged up skin? Sarah Fuzzy love- Pendleton Scarf and Bobbie Socks [Posted in FML issue 4319]