bukket - I've never tried oatmeal, but I'd imagine it's just to soak up any moisture that might have gotten in the hair. When you're tanning fox, coons, etc a lot of guys will tumble the fur in sawdust to finish it off. A blowdryer set on "cool" works good to fluff up the hair too.
You guys probably already know this too, but when you're scraping thin hides like deer it goes a whole lot faster to wet scrape rather than stretching it out to dry scrape. I like to freeze mine and then thaw them out overnight before I scrape them - I don't know if freezing weakens the membrane or what, but it sure seems to scrape easier when I do it that way. I just use a log I split in two for a fleshing beam and lean it up against a tree (inside the barn wall if it's cold). An old piece of flat iron, about 18 inches long and inch or so wide makes a good scraper. I put a rough edge on it with grinder, but you don't want it sharp for deer hides. It goes pretty quick once you get the hang of it.